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HOW GOLF CLUBS WORK . . . & Affect Your Ability To Score By Ralph Maltby

Second Edition 2007, First Edition 2005 © Copyright 2007, The GolfWorks

Published by The GolfWorks

Book manufactured in The United States of America ISBN 0-927956-13-6

For inquiries and/or additional copies contact:

The GolfWorks 4820 Jacksontown Road • P.O. Box 3008

Newark, Ohio 43058-3008 1-800-848-8358 FAX 1-800-800-3290

www.golfworks.com All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or in whole in any form is expressly forbidden,

except by written permission of the publisher, author or if specifically noted in this publication for certain forms to copy and fill out.

MALTBY®

P L AY B E T T E R G O L F.

About The GolfWorks In 1976, Ralph Maltby founded The GolfWorks which manufactures and distributes golf clubs, shafts, grips, machines, gauges, tools and supplies worldwide to golf club re-pair shops, golf professionals, manufacturers and custom clubmakers. This equipment is uniquely designed and is known worldwide for excellent performance and highest quality. The GolfWorks is the industry leader in research and development, technical services and education. Mr. Maltby has written numerous best selling technical books, two of which have been the official golf club design and fitting manuals for the Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) for the past 30 years. Most of what we do has been a well kept secret with golfers but within our industry we have a far reaching and continuing significant influence. Many PGA touring professionals visit The GolfWorks or send us clubs for exacting alterations to their specifications. Our reputation for precision, high quality work is unsurpassed. Individuals from most foreign countries and from every state in the U.S.A. have experienced first hand the excitement of learning from the wide range of golf club technology we teach in our schools. Many of the Who’s Who in the golf industry have attended our schools which are acclaimed as the best in the world. Our golf club fitting facility overlooks our 300 yard driving range. We have an indoor and outdoor putting green and practice tee area, and a sand bunker. We offer comprehensive golf club fitting sessions, standard fittings or you can address an area of weakness in your game for us to help.

4 How Golf Clubs Work & Affect Your Ability To Score

Our highly skilled craftsmen do all types of golf club repair, including re-grooving irons, re-chroming irons, modifying or welding broken hosels on irons or metal woods, re-furbishing classic persimmon woods and modern metal woods or fre-quency matching your set of clubs. We do it all, simply ask.

You are the very reason Ralph Maltby began this company, knowing he could make the game of golf more pleasurable and satisfying for every discern-ing player. In 2006 Ralph sold The GolfWorks to Golf Galaxy. The GolfWorks’ products and services are carried in a special section within each Golf Galaxy store. Many of the store personnel have completed “The Maltby Certification Program” which provides in-depth training on the latest,

most accurate golf club fitting tech-niques and also provides additional technical training on all aspects of golf equipment so we can provide

timely, accurate and thorough equipment informa-tion to our customers. Mark McCormick CEO of The GolfWorks

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Introduction The main purpose of this book is to help you play better golf. How are we going to help you play better? This is actually easier to do than you think; but it will take some of your time. First, time to read and understand the material in this book and secondly, to set your own goals and take time for the appropriate ac-tions. For a small book, it covers a number of subjects, all of which are highly interest-ing to golfers. All of the subjects covered are concise, to the point and easily readable. Think of this book as a concentration of material turned into valuable golfer tips and interesting information. You can basically open it to any page and start reading about that subject to make golf either more understandable or lead you in the direction of improving your play. Sometimes, to really help us play better, we need to look at our game and our equip-ment in a more analytical fashion. In some areas, the book asks the reader to take a pro-active approach, meaning you need to do something like play a round of golf and note a few things on a form or check something on your present equipment, etc. This is not only fun but it can also be very informative, educational and above all “eye opening.” Golf is a great game, it can be addictive and it can be frustrating because if you beat it one day, it will surely be lying in wait to try and beat you the next. Think about it, golf is an individual sport, not a team sport; so we beat ourselves or we bask in the glory ourselves. Since we are all different and most of us would like to improve to be the best we can be; we each may approach the goal in differing ways. This book will help guide you into these different approaches so you can make your own decisions. At a minimum, it will give you, the golfer, something to think about. Hopefully it will guide you in the right direction so you enjoy and play better golf and more easily understand, “How Golf Clubs Work . . . & Affect Your Ability To Score.” Ralph Maltby

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Table Of Contents Page 8-13 Section One . . . . . . . . . . . THE FIVE P’S OF GOLF Page 14-37 Section Two . . . . . . . . . . . SEVEN GOLF CLUB FITTING VARIABLES

THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Page 38-43 Section Three . . . . . . . . . . WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN AVERAGE

GOLFER HITS A DRIVE? Page 44 Section Four . . . . . . . . . . . UNDERSTANDING THE GOLF BALL

“FLYER” EFFECT AND WHAT CAUSES IT Page 45 Section Five . . . . . . . . . . . DEFINING FEEL Page 46-49 Section Six . . . . . . . . . . . . BALL DIRECTION AND CURVE (CLUB

FACE ANGLE VS. CLUBHEAD PATH) Page 50-52 Section Seven . . . . . . . . . UNDERSTANDING MOMENT OF INERTIA

(MOI) Page 53-56 Section Eight . . . . . . . . . . HOW MOMENT OF INERTIA (MOI)

AFFECTS DRIVER PLAYABILITY Page 57-64 Section Nine . . . . . . . . . . . PUTTER FITTING VARIABLES –

HOW TO PUTT BETTER 5-68 Section Ten . . . . . . . . . . . . HOW AND WHY WEDGES WORK Page 69-74 Section Eleven . . . . . . . . . A DISCUSSION OF THE FIVE TYPES

OF WEDGES Page 75-79 Section Twelve . . . . . . . . . THE WEDGE SCORE CARD Page 80-87 Section Thirteen . . . . . . . . WHAT WOMEN NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

GOLF CLUBS TO PLAY BETTER Page 88-90 Section Fourteen . . . . . . . ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS Page 91-93 Section Fifteen . . . . . . . . . THE FITTING SCORECARD: ANALYZING

YOUR GAME Page 94-103 Section Sixteen . . . . . . . . WHAT CAN A GOLFER DO TO

GUARANTEE A BETTER CLUB FITTING AND GOLF CLUB BUYING EXPERIENCE?

Page 104 Section Seventeen . . . . . . THE SECRET TO PLAYING BETTER GOLF Page 105-111 Section Eighteen . . . . . . . DEFINITIONS OF GOLF TERMS Page 112-113 Section Nineteen . . . . . . . GOLF CLUB YARDAGE CHART Page 114-115 Section Twenty. . . . . . . . . PERSONAL GOLF ROUND INFORMATION Page 116 Section Twenty One . . . . . GOLF BALL FITTING Page 119 Section Twenty Two . . . . . BUILDING YOUR OWN GOLF CLUBS IS

ONE GREAT HOBBY!


Section One

THE FIVE P’S OF GOLF

We all want to improve at golf. I think it is safe to say that most of us could squeeze a little time from somewhere to pursue this goal. Today’s demands on our time from our family, job and other activities puts a little additional pressure on us. The addictive qualities of golf; whether it’s the challenge, the fun matches, being outside or just being with good friends is reason enough to find a little (or a lot) of spare time to improve at golf and hopefully feel better about ourselves. The tough-est opponent you will ever play golf against is one whose handicap is coming down. So, why don’t you be that opponent? So, how do we improve? Think about it and you will probably guess two of them: Play and Practice. Actually, there are five ways to improve your golf game. You can remember them by referring to them as the five P’s:

1. Practice

2. Play

3. Professional Swing Instruction

4. Positive Attitude

5. Properly Fit, Quality Equipment

1. PRACTICE

Hitting a few balls and putts before you go out and play is not practice, it is warming up. Sure, every ball you hit in your golfing life has some value to it; but the real improvement benefits come from well planned, controlled and diverse practice sessions with one or a few specific goals in mind. Going to the driving range and blasting off 60 to 100 balls with only your driver from a range mat may be planned (albeit a poor one), but it probably will not provide the type of improvement to shoot lower scores. Here is a good way to approach practicing: 1.First, decide what you need to work

on and/or correct. Examples would be: slicing or hooking the ball excessively, pushing the ball right or left, hitting it too high or too low. Maybe your chipping and pitching needs help, you are taking 38 putts per round average, you have a great fear of sand traps, etc.

2. Pick 1, 2 or 3 of your problem areas

for each practice session and set your goals to show improvement. Remember, practice that achieves noticeable improvement to you also increases your confidence when you step out on the course. Confidence

and proper mental attitude cannot be overstressed.

3.Do not simply hit ball after ball in a

fairly rapid succession. Take your time between shots; go through your same routine as you do on the golf course. Step away and step back up before each shot. Check your stance. Look at your grip. Most importantly, always aim at a target. Never just hit balls for the sake of hitting balls.

4.Regardless of your problem areas,

always try to include all your club types in every practice session. What I mean by this is to hit your driver, a fairway wood, a long iron, a mid iron, a short iron, a wedge or two and the putter. This more simu-lates what would happen in a round of golf. This doesn’t mean that you switch from club to club after every shot. Hit some balls with each club until you feel comfortable and then move on to the next club.

5.Before hitting the first shot always

warm up by swinging a weighted club or two iron clubs held together. Slowly work up to a full easy rhythmic swing. Next bend over slowly at the waist once or twice and touch your golf shoes. This will stretch out your lower back. Bend slowly backwards to stretch your

back in the reverse direction. Rotate your body around your hips 5 or 6 times while holding a club horizontally above your head. Bend from side to side a few times. Do anything you like to stretch, loosen up and relax.

6. I like to start out hitting an 8 iron

with only ½ to ¾ swings. As I start to get my timing and rhythm down, I work up to full but still easy swings. Many players like to start with their wedge. I find that it is quite easy to hit a few fat shots on your first few swings with a wedge which quickly erodes ones confidence. The main point here is to use the club that you feel most comfortable hitting. So, if you use my 8 iron warm up method, next hit a few pitching wedges and possibly a couple fairway sand wedge shots. Now you can go to the mid irons, long irons, driver and fairway clubs. Again, do what feels comfortable.

7. Manage your time between the

range and practice green. The short game (chipping, pitching, sand shots and putting) comprises anywhere from 55% to 65% of your entire score. Spend at least an equal or preferably a greater amount of time in this important scoring area. Proper practice techniques are the fastest way I know to lower your score.

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8. Putting Practice Drills: Have a match with someone on the putting green. This puts the pressure on and increases your concentration. A small wager is nice and always adds to the concentration factor. Place a ball one foot from the hole and knock it in. Next place it 2 feet from the hole and knock it in. Next 3, 4, 5 feet and so on until you miss, then start all over. Once again this applies pressure and concentration to every putt. At first make your

goal something like 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 feet without missing and do not leave the putting green until you have accomplished it. Simply use random length putts for a specified time while you carefully line up every putt. Your goal is to

not three putt for the entire session. If you do have one or more three putts simply keep track of how many and attempt to beat that score the

next practice putting session. 9. Chipping Practice: Chip as long as

you like or until you chip one in. Be sure you are using the correct club for each chipping situation. The 7, 8, and 9 irons are easy to hit and work well for many chip and run shots. A number of players prefer chipping with wedges. Simply find out what works best for you and gives you the highest confidence level. Be sure to get a feel for chipping out of the

different length grass cuts around the green.

10.Sand Trap Practice: Most people

rake the practice bunker and care-fully place each ball on the very top of the sand and hit sand shots. While this is good fundamental practice, many times it is not real world. Hit shots from various lies in the bunker. Also, hit some sand

shots with the ball above and below your feet. Toss a handful of balls into the bunker and play them where

they lie. It doesn’t hurt to step on one every once in a while and see if you can get it out. (Hint: Hold on tight, swing firm with a more steeply descending clubhead, hit the sand 1" or 11/2" behind the ball and forget about any kind of follow through.)

2. PLAY This is what the game is all about, being out on a golf course relaxing and enjoying the game. You must play the game to keep improving. It mentally and mechanically tests your ability to hit every shot at which you only get one chance to do perfectly. Put yourself in a tournament or a tough friendly match and this is pressure. You can practice, practice, practice, but you need to play and keep playing to see how often you can repeat your swing, be mentally tough and come through hole after hole in differing situations.


Here is a way to practice while you play and also help you determine your potential. Go out and play a round by yourself. Hit two drives from the first tee and pick the best. Hit your next two shots from that spot and pick the best, hit your next two shots and so on until you hole out. This is sort of a one per-son scramble. The purpose of doing it is three fold: First, it’s more fun than just playing a normal round of golf all by yourself. Second, you get to hit al-most twice as many shots during one round of golf. Third, you can see what your score would be if you had a sec-ond chance on every shot. True that there is less pressure, but this playing method is still an eye opener and a con-fidence builder showing what you can actually accomplish with your game. Your score will be much lower than you would normally shoot making this a lot of fun to do. But here is the key: You know that you have the ability to get your score down to this level but you need to eliminate the bad shots and inconsistent play. Make mental notes and jot them down after playing so you know what areas of “The Five Ways to Improve Your Golf Game” you need to address: 1. Practice, 2. Play, 3. Professional Swing Instruction, 4. Posi-tive Attitude, 5. Properly Fit, Quality Equipment. Every one of the five P’s is interrelated to your game and each will have its own importance as we go farther into your understanding of what it takes to play better golf.

3.PROFESSIONAL SWING INSTRUCTION

Your playing partners, husbands, wives or golfer friends are not golf professionals! Having someone tell you what they think you are doing wrong is only bad if you listen to them. In a few instances they may even be right but the bigger problem occurs if and when they tell you how to correct your problem. A golf professional can watch you swing and will know how you worked into your problem, properly and fully identify it, demonstrate to you what it is and finally, offer instruction and possibly some simple drills on how to correct it. A key element in golf professional in-struction is the use of swing aids to easily visualize your faults and also using time proven drills. These simple but very effective drills can make it easier for you to eliminate your swing problems and usually advance even further in improving your swing and consequently your ball striking ability. Remember, you can take a lesson to get properly introduced to the game, build an entirely new swing with the goal to take your game to a professional level or you can simply ask for a putting les-son. Talk to your golf professional and decide on a plan. Take it a step at a

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time, work it into your schedule to practice what you are learning and go back for another lesson to keep im-proving. The key point here is that pro-fessional instruction saves a lot of trial and error and advances anyone’s game more rapidly than they can do it on their own. 4. POSITIVE ATTITUDE A positive outlook on your game and the game of golf itself will not only help you play better but it will make golf a more enjoyable game. I look at a “posi-tive attitude” as both a confidence builder and as a means of maintaining or creating “momentum.” Just like we see on television when a football team or a basketball team or a professional golfer has everything going their way. What’s happening here is a confident, positive attitude which in turn makes something good happen during play, and more good things keep happening, which in turn creates “momentum.” The power of the mind is amazing. Why is it that we can start out a round hitting the ball badly, which is usually coupled with a few additional bad breaks, and we shoot a lousy front nine only to come back 7, 8, 9 or 10 shots bet-ter on the back nine? It’s simple, we step up to the tee on the back nine and we tell ourselves, “OK, it’s a new nine, I’ve blown the score, I can relax now. No pressure.” With this new positive

attitude, all it takes is to put the back nine tee shot in play coupled with a few more shots hit well and the confi-dence level improves and the “momen-tum” starts to build. Remember the worse we play the more bad breaks we get and the better we play the more good breaks we get. It’s the same with “luck.” The better we play the luckier we get. So, it’s obvious. Work on a more posi-tive attitude to help you play better and you will get more good breaks and have more luck. 5.PROPERLY FIT, QUALITY

EQUIPMENT Of all the five “P’s” on how to improve your game, “properly fit golf clubs” can give you noticeable immediate improvement. I would guess that at least 95% of all golfers would benefit in some way from a proper golf club fit-ting. It is amazing that so many golfers overlook this area when buying new clubs or never get properly retro-fitted to their present clubs. Golf club fitting encompasses a much broader area regarding how a golfer plays the game than they might think. Fitting not only includes the proper specifications for your clubs, but also a determination of proper set make-up, proper fitting of your putter, and


increased knowledge on how and why various golf clubs do what they do. The more knowledge the golfer has will help in knowing how and when to hit a certain club. An example would be what to do when the ball is above or below the golfer’s feet. Also when you are being fit is a good time to learn about your new club’s design charac-teristics. In other words, what features are built into these clubs which will benefit your game? When you decide to get a proper golf club fitting; you can make it a much better learning experience and you can gain much more from it if you do your homework. A little planning on your part, honestly answering a few ques-tions, checking out a few things using your present clubs, making a couple notes during your next round or two and reading these next few pages of en-lightening golf club fitting information will do the trick. I realize I may raise a number of questions when you read the following, but your fitting profes-sional will be happy to answer any spe-cific questions. My goal is to make you aware of how important it is to have properly fit golf clubs. The most amaz-ing part to this statement is that it usu-ally doesn’t cost any more to have your clubs custom fit vs. just buying a new set as is. Remember proper fitting is a sure way to noticeable immediate im-provement.

NOTES:

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Section Two SEVEN GOLF CLUB FITTING VARIABLES THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The following fitting variables provide information for the golfer to help in understanding why each is utilized in the fitting process. I am convinced that a better understanding of this knowledge by golfers provides an even more accurate fitting, because the fitter and the golfer can more easily communicate. 1. LOFT ANGLE The loft angle of a golf club is the main determining factor in golf ball trajectory. See Figure 2-1. There are other fitting variables which also affect trajectory and these will be discussed later. The lofts of metal

woods, irons, wedges and even putters are determined by the club designer and should only be altered by an ex-pert. Many metal woods and wedges are available in different lofts and some manufacturers offer different iron models in different lofts. Because of this the club fitter can determine what trajectory characteristics would be best for you and make recommenda-tions accordingly. Figure 2-2 shows the affect that more or less loft has on trajectory, distance, backspin and roll. The club fitter will use a chart like this to note your relative trajectory com-pared to the average for the particular club you are hitting. Do not assume from Figure 2-2 that you would auto-matically want a lower trajectory to hit the ball farther. Look closely and note that backspin is reduced. This is a tradeoff you sometimes make for the increased distance. Also, here is why you need the knowledge of a trained

FIG. 2-1

LOFT ANGLELOFT ANGLE (DEGREES)

LOFT ANGLE (DEGREES)

90°

club fitter; they know from experience many things you don’t know. For ex-ample: The less loft a club has the harder it is to hit. Why? Because the less loft a club has the more direct force (less oblique hit) the clubhead ap-plies to the golf ball. In other words, the lesser loft causes more hitting force and compresses the golf ball more. The more force that is applied to a golf ball, the more important it is to hit the ball in the middle of the club face or sweet spot (clubhead’s center of gravity). Off-center hits will twist the clubhead thereby reducing distance and direc-tional control and finally providing a very unsolid feeling at impact. So, all of this to simply say; “The less the loft, the harder the club is to hit.” Doesn’t this partially explain why a 2 iron is much harder to hit than a 9 iron. (This will come later but “The longer the length of a golf club, the harder it is to hit.”) We have all experienced the terrible result of hitting a long iron on

the toe resulting in a bad, unsolid feel-ing and significant loss of distance. But, if we hit a 9 iron on the toe it still feels relatively solid and loses very little distance. Why? Because the 9 iron has a lot of loft and applies very little force to the ball vs. a 2 iron. Finally; there is an impact test you will learn about later that determines the impact location range where you actually hit the ball on the club face for both your metal woods and irons. This will also be done by the club fitter since this information will help deter-mine not only what loft is best for you, but is a key factor in determining the best length golf clubs for you. Many club fitters today use launch monitors to determine proper club loft and ball trajectory. These devices create a more accurate indoor fitting because they can provide accurate results of trajectory, distance and back spin already shown and discussed in

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FIG. 2-2

Effect of Loft on Trajectory, Distance, Backspin and Roll.

Figure 2-2. They also have the advan-tage of helping to pick a specific golf ball’s launch and spin characteristics that will complement the golf club’s loft or launch characteristics for any given golfer. 2. LIE ANGLE When preparing to hit an iron shot to the green, all golfers want the ball to get as close to the hole as possible. However, what if the shot misses the green to the right or left with annoying frequency? The fact is that the biggest cause of this problem is incorrect lie angle. The proper lie angle is an ex-tremely important fitting variable that cannot be overlooked. The golfer needs to thoroughly understand this fitting variable to be able to relate to their current situation. It is also great knowledge for the golfer to have to

ensure that the lie angle is properly fit. See Figure 2-3 for a definition of lie angle. Improper lie angle on clubs will more than likely cause directional control problems for the golfer. Clubs with too upright a lie (toe up) will have a ten-dency to pull the ball left of the target and will also increase the possibility of imparting a hooking spin to the ball. Conversely, clubs with a lie that is too flat (toe down) for a golfer will have a tendency to push the ball right of the target and will increase the possibility of imparting a slicing spin to the ball. It is possible to hit the ball straight with improper lie clubs; but this means that the golfer has compensated by adjusting their swing and/or aim to the club’s incorrect lie angle. The club’s lie angle must be properly adjusted to each golfer’s personal


FIG. 2-3

LIE ANGLE

LIE ANGLE (DEGREES)

LIE ANGLE (DEGREES)

swing and physical stature. Once again, the correct lie angle is one of the most important specifications to check when properly fitting golf clubs. Consider this: you now have been told lie angle at impact has a direct affect on ball direction, but this is not the full story. The lie angle at impact also helps to determine solidness of feel, ball carry distance, amount of back-spin, trajectory and the amount of ball roll. If the lie angle is not correct, the golfer must compensate for all or some of these variables in each and every shot. The problem is that the golfer usually does not know they are uncon-sciously correcting their aim for im-proper lie angle thus making the game

of golf much more difficult. A thorough understanding of properly fit lie angles and understanding exactly what lie angle does at impact is one of the fitting variables which can make immediate and often dramatic improvements in your golf game. Whenever a player is having directional control problems with their clubs, nine out of ten times the problem is improper lie angles. Now that I have stressed the impor-tance of a proper lie angle; it is time to show you why improper lie angles can and do cause directional control problems. Most golfers are not even aware of the fact that it may be their

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FIG. 2-4

LIE TOO UPRIGHT Ball will be hit left of target

CORRECT LIE Straight shot

LIE TOO FLAT Ball will be hit right of target

LIE TOO UPRIGHT Ball will be hit left of target

CORRECT LIE Straight shot

LIE TOO FLAT Ball will be hit right of target

Improper lie can cause directional problems in both woods and irons.

NOTE: Even

though the leading edge of the club is

perpendicular or square to the

desired direction of flight, the tilted

plane on the face of either a too up-right or too flat lie

club will hit the ball either left or

right of the target, respectively.

TARG

ETTARG

ET

TARG

ET

TARG

ETTARG

ET

TARG

ET


Refer to Figure 2-4 which shows that a metal wood or iron with too upright a lie will have a tendency to hit the ball left of target, and conversely too flat a lie will hit the ball right of target. It is important to note here that in all three drawings of Figure 2-4 the leading edge of the club face is perpendicular or per-fectly square to the target. The expla-nation of why the ball will go either left or right with too upright or too flat a lie is this: The lie of the club estab-lishes the directional plane of the loft. If the club at impact is the same as shown under “correct lie” in Figure 2-4, the plane of the face will be perpen-dicular or square to the target. How-ever, if the lie of the club at impact is too upright, the directional plane of the face will be pointing left of the target or tilted left even though the leading edge of the face is aligned square to the tar-get. The difference between the proper and improper lie angle at impact and also the amount of club face loft is re-ferred to as a “compound angle.” This compound angle is the amount of tilt or misdirection in the face or as the golfer sees it, the initial direction of ball flight. If a golf club were made with no loft (0 degrees) then improper lie would cause no directional problems because with no loft a compound angle or tilt of the face plane would not exist. To un-derstand this better, do this: hold a 9 iron in the proper address position with the face aiming at the target. As-sume this club to have a 64° lie angle

and a 48° loft angle. Begin lowering the grip end toward the ground while keeping the leading edge of the face square with the target until the grip and shaft lie flat against the ground. At this point, the club’s actual lie angle in the playing position is 0° because the 64° original lie angle has actually been transferred entirely into a left tilting of the face plane. See Figure 2-5. In addition, the club’s actual loft angle in the playing position is also 0° be-cause no amount of vertical loft exists to get the ball airborne. This means that if you were holding a 9 iron with a 48° loft angle and could hit the ball with the club shaft lying flat against the ground and the leading edge square to the target, the ball would be pulled exactly 48° left of the target or the full amount of the club’s original loft. Also, the ball would not become airborne and would be rolling along the ground because the loft is now ef-fectively 0°. Finally, backspin (usually around 9000 RPM for a 9 iron) would be transformed into pure counterclock-wise hooking sidespin further aggra-vating the situation by adding hook spin to the directional control problem that already exists. Look closely at the iron in this position and imagine the ball coming off the face. The more lofted the iron, the far-ther left it will go; and the less lofted the club, for example a driver, the less

left it will go. Also note that in Figure 2-5 there is an example of a club with no loft or 0° loft. This shows that if no loft exists; then regardless of the proper or improper lie, the ball will al-ways go toward the target if the lead-ing edge of the club face is pointed square to the target. This points out that putters have minimal directional control problems when the lie is im-proper because the ideal putter lofts are usually between 3° and 41/2° loft. However, if the toe of your putter is up in the air 3º (club is 3º too upright for you), you will miss a perfectly hit 28 foot putt on the left side of the hole as-

suming you are a right handed golfer (lefty’s will miss it on the right side). Let’s look at some examples using irons and your driver which would better typify actual conditions of im-pact with improper lie angles. First, as-sume that you have a 115 yard 9 iron shot to the green with a bunker left. The pin is positioned 15 feet from the left edge of the green. Also, assume that you will execute the shot perfectly with one exception: The lie angle is 4º too upright for you meaning the toe of your iron is sticking up in the air 4º. Here is what would happen. See Figure

19

FIG. 2-5

AMOUNT OF PULL

TARG

ET

TARG

ET

TARG

ET

48° LOFT

#9 IRON

#2 IRON

DRIVER

ACTUAL BALL FLIGHT

9,000 to 13,000 revolutions per minute of sidespin



20° LOFT

11° LOFT

BALL

D

IREC

TIO

N

TARG

ET

EXAMPLE OF CLUB WITH NO LOFT

Result: Ball direction is the same as the target direction, no sidespin

exists.

Effect of improper lie angle on face plane tilt versus amount of loft Explanation of this figure: Top view of impact with shaft lying flat on on ground. Ball is hit and pulled left of target by amount of loft. Backspin is converted into counter-clockwise hooking sidespin causing shot to actually be a pull hook. Lead-ing edge of club is aimed at target. Ball does not become airborne with any of the 3 clubs since no vertical loft component exists.

would happen. See Figure 2-6. With a close-up, high speed camera, we see the club’s sole at impact actually touches the ground at a point 1" rearward of the center of the face, indicating on most irons that the club came through the impact zone with the player hold-ing the club 4° flatter in lie angle than the lie angle actually built into the club. Because the club was swung 4° flatter, this causes the toe of the club to stick up in the air 4° which is too up-right for this player. It can be calcu-lated mathematically that the ball will be pulled 3° left of the target because the iron’s face plane is tilted by 3° in

that direction (This assumes a 48° lofted 9 iron). On a 115 yard shot, this would amount to pulling the shot left by approximately 18 feet or, as in this case, into the bunker. Also, there would be a slight hooking effect from the added counterclockwise sidespin applied to the ball which would amount to an additional 4 feet left of target. This shot is a “pull hook” re-sulting in the ball landing 22 feet left of the target from the lie being only 4° too upright at impact. Imagine a pull hook 22 feet left of the target even though the clubhead path and face angle at impact were square to the target. The player made a perfect swing, but the improp-erly fit lie angle turned it into a poor shot. Also, the ball will not bite as well when it hit the green because some of the beneficial back spin revolutions were turned into hooking side spin revolutions. For another example, assume a driver is also being hit with the lie 4° too up-right for the player. Since a driver usu-ally has a 9º, 10° or 11° loft compared to a 9 iron with 48° loft, the pulling effect is far less severe even though the driver hits the ball a much greater dis-tance. With the lie angle 4° too upright, the ball would be pulled approximately 1° left of the target or only 11 feet left on a 220 yard drive. The hooking effect from sidespin would only be another 2 feet causing the ball to land 13 feet left of the middle of the fairway.


FIG. 2-6

RESULT FROM TOE UP 4° AT IMPACT

18 FT. PULL LEFT + 4 FT. CURVE LEFT = 22 FT. TOTAL LEFT

Incorrect lie angle at impact – 9 iron 48° loft

22 FT.

3°BALL

LEAVES CLUB FACE

PULLED BY THIS

AMOUNT

TOE UP 4°AT

IMPACT

LEADING EDGE OF FACE IS ALIGNED SQUARELY WITH FLAG

115

YDS.

See Figure 2-7. An astute reader should start to formu-late some interesting thoughts con-cerning lie. First, let us assume that the golfer has a set of metal woods and irons that are all 4° too upright at im-pact. The old thinking was that since the lies were all off by the same amount, there would be no problem be-cause the player could adjust their swing and/or aim by compensating the same amount for each club. Actually, we have just proved this not to be so. We have learned that the more lofted a

club, the greater the tendency will be to hit it off the target line even if all the lie angles are consistently incorrect. Hence, the higher lofted short irons which are used for accuracy are the most critical for having the proper lie angle adjusted to fit the golfer. Second, if the lies on a set of woods and irons are not incrementally correct for a given golfer (i.e., assume the 4 iron is 1° upright, the 5 iron is 3° upright, the 6 iron is 2° flat, the 3 fairway metal is 4° upright, etc.) then the problem could be even further compounded and would still require a different compen-sating swing for each club to hit the ball with any consistency at the target. I realize that up to this point we have gone through a rather lengthy and somewhat technical discussion of lie angle. However, the impact that this one fitting variable can have on im-proving your game is huge and under-standing it is very important for you and the club fitter. I’ll finish the discus-sion on lie by telling you how lie should be properly fit to you and why it is done in this manner. The best way to check and fit lie angle on irons, hybrids and fairway metals is to use a non-marring hard surface plastic or a wood board and actually hit shots off it. See Figure 2-8. The club fitter will probably start with a 9 iron. A piece of tape will be placed on the sole of the iron. You will be asked to hit a “real” golf ball off the board.

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FIG. 2-7

RESULT FROM TOE UP 4° AT IMPACT

11 FT. PULL LEFT + 2 FT. CURVE LEFT = 13 FT. TOTAL LEFT

Incorrect lie angle at impact – driver 11° loft

13 FT.

1°

BALL LEAVES

CLUB FACE

PULLED BY THIS

AMOUNT

TOE UP 4°AT

IMPACT

LEADING EDGE OF FACE IS ALIGNED SQUARELY WITH FLAG

115

YDS.

Note: You must actually hit a real golf ball to get accurate results. Next, the club fitter will look at the mark on the tape where the sole contacted the board and measure from the face centerline to the middle of the mark. This distance will determine how much to bend the hosel to alter the lie angle so the club fits you properly. See Figure 2-9.

The reason we fit lie in this manner is quite interesting and it is based on three variables that affect lie angle at impact. 1. Each golfer is different physically

and most have differing setups, swings and swing speeds.

2. The golfer’s hand position at address with the ball and his hand position at impact are not the same and varies from golfer to golfer. See Figure 2-10.

3. During the swing the clubhead bows down (flattening the lie angle). This is caused mostly by shaft flexibility, club length, head weight and swing speed. See Figure 2-11.

Here are a few final thoughts. There is a tendency with many golfers to pull their short irons left of the target and push or push fade their longer irons

FIG. 2-8

IMPORTANT: Performing this test without actually hitting balls will not give accurate results.

Checking for proper lie angle: The Board Method

FIG. 2-9

Lie Angle Board Test

MASKING TAPE ON SOLE OF CLUB

NON-SPIKED SHOES REAL BALL PLACED ON BOARD (NOT TEE)

MARK TOWARDS TOE INDICATES CLUB IS TOO FLAT MARK IN THE MIDDLE INDICATES CORRECT LIE MARK TOWARD HEEL INDICATES CLUB IS TOO UPRIGHT

CENTER OF FACE

CENTER OF MARK3/4" LIE NEEDS TO BE FLATTENED INITIALLY, RE-TEST UNTIL MARK IS IN THE MIDDLE

FIG. 2-10

Hand position change from address to impact usually flattens lie angle

THE GOLFER CHANGES THE

CLUBS LIE ANGLE FROM1° TO 3° FLATTER

(CLUBHEAD TOE DOWN)

BY CHANGING HIS HAND

POSITION FROM ADDRESS TO IMPACT 1°

TO 3° MORE UPRIGHT


right of the target. A simple explana-tion for this is that many golf club manufacturers vary lie angles incre-mentally by 1° more flat as each club’s length increases by 1/2". In ac-tuality 1° is too much and 1/2° should be used. Using 1/2° would make the long irons more upright in relation to the short irons. This is not a substi-tute for fitting proper lie angles to the golfer, but it helps eliminate the tendency to push or push fade the long irons in the initial design of a stock off the shelf set of clubs. 3. SHAFT FLEX The golf shaft’s purpose is to bring the clubhead into the proper impact posi-tion with predictable repeatability, swing after swing for a given golfer. To do this the golf shaft must have its four main design characteristics in

sync with the specific golfer and the clubhead’s design characteristics. Four Main Golf Shaft Characteristics 1. Shaft Stiffness (X-stiff, stiff,

medium, flexible, ladies flex) 2. Shaft Flex Point (where it bends

the most; low, mid or high) 3. Shaft Weight (ultra light, super

light, lightweight, medium weight and tour weight)

4. Shaft Torque (amount it twists during the swing; low torsional resistance or high torsional resistance)

These four main golf shaft characteris-tics above influence the proper fitting of the five important shaft playability features on the next page.

23

FIG. 2-11

How centrifugal force tends to flatten the lie of a club during the downswing. Factors causing this are: Club Length, Shaft Flex,

Clubhead Weight and Swing Speed

LONG IRONS FLATTEN ABOUT1° TO 11/2° VARYING PROPERTIONATELY DOWN TO THE 9 IRON WHICH FLATTENS ALMOST NIL.

DRIVERS AND FAIRWAY METALS TEND TO FLATTEN BETWEEN 1° AND 2°.

CENTER OF GRAVITY

FLATTENED LIE

NORMAL LIE

CENTERIFUGAL FORCE

CENTERIFUGAL FORCE

FLATTENED LIE

NORMAL LIE

Five Elements of Shaft Playability 1. Trajectory (low, normal, high) 2. Solidness of Feel (player

comments) 3. Consistency of Hit (repeatability) 4. Directional Control (relationship

to target) 5. Clubhead Speed (also distance ball

is hit) A certified golf club fitting expert prop-erly analyzes the player by watching the player’s ball flight pattern, trajec-tory, consistency of hit, swing speed and distance while having the player hit clubs with different shaft flexes, materials and other characteristics. Keep in mind that many golf club man-ufacturers have their own shafts de-signed to work in their clubs. In this case it is a matter of hitting the various flexes and lengths to see what performs best for you. In the final analysis, here is what you are looking for in a prop-erly fit golf shaft or for that matter a properly fit golf club.

Normal Ball Trajectories Good Consistency and Distance Good Directional Control Solid Feeling at Impact

The ideal situation is to actually watch ball flight and be fit for shaft flex while hitting on an outdoor range. However, with the advent of modern simulators and ball launch monitors, a club fitter

can still be very accurate fitting shaft flexing characteristics indoors using a net. Be sure that the club fitter is fully certified using the ball launch monitor and you hit enough shots to get a thor-ough fit. I would always recommend that you bring in one of your current clubs to compare results to the new club or set you are thinking about buy-ing. Ask questions to fully understand what the fitter is doing. Also realize that ball launch monitor technology is rapidly changing and improving so be sure to ask how new the equipment is and what technology it uses. For instance, I personally like the new Doppler radar technology for improved accuracy of data. Some ball launch monitors use fiber optics for acquiring data, others use laser beams and there are other technologies. Doppler radar units can gather data from before im-pact to a point much farther out from impact making them more accurate. The fiber optic and laser units pick up all the data in a much shorter distance and rely more heavily on mathematical algorithms to calculate data. In actual-ity, every type of launch monitor uses algorithms to some extent. You should realize by now after only reading about three of the fitting vari-ables of loft, lie and shaft flex that more than one fitting variable can have an affect on the same thing. This is why a trained and certified fitting profes-sional is a must.


4. CLUB LENGTH Because of technological improve-ments in golf shaft materials and lighter shaft weights coupled with new clubhead materials and better casting technology to make clubheads larger, particularly metal drivers; golf club standard lengths have increased. As a matter of fact no real new standard exists as each club manufacturer makes their own decisions model by model. See Figure 2-12 for a basic definition of club length. Determining the proper length of a

club for a given golfer is one fitting variable that has been misunderstood and abused in the past. This is particu-larly true when a chart is used that determines the proper club length by measuring from fingertips, knuckles or wrists to the floor as shown in Figure 2-13.

25

SHAFT FLEX TROUBLE SHOOTING GUIDE SHAFT PROBLEM POSSIBLE EFFECTS Shaft Too Stiff • Lower than normal ball trajectory

• Unsolid feeling at impact on all but exact dead center hits, harsh feel

• Tendency to push or push slice ball to right • Loss of distance (less carry but more roll)

Shaft Too Flexible • Higher than normal trajectory, usually with a draw or hooking left of target

• Whippy feeling but also a solid feeling hit at impact even when slightly off center

• Generally inconsistent directional control • Loss of distance (less carry with less roll)

FIG. 2-12

Definition of club length

FIG. 2-13

Incorrect method of fitting length. Using a ruler to measure finger tip or wrist to ground. This method only provides useless information to the golfer and also to the club fitter.

This type of measurement does not take into consideration a golfer’s playing ability or posture while in the address position. It has absolutely nothing to do with fitting proper club length and as such should never be used. It is mostly used by some club fitters and club manufacturers as an easy convenience and visual hocus pocus so the golfer feels impressed that the fitter really knows what they are doing. When someone whips out the ruler to measure you in this manner, walk away because they are doing you a disservice. So, what is the definition of proper club length for a player and how is club length properly fit?

Definition of Proper Club Length The longest possible club length the golfer can handle which produces a generally face centered ball impact pat-tern, good directional control (accu-racy), proper trajectory, solidness of feel at impact and maximum distance. A club length with which the golfer feels comfortable and confident. You should see from the definition that fitting club length is mainly a tradeoff in distance and directional control. During fitting you will hit various length golf clubs of a certain model until you have satisfied the definition of proper club length. The bottom line is a club length that produces the maximum distance, feels good and more importantly keeps the ball in


FIG. 2-14

Club length versus accuracy and distance. An extreme example to prove a point.

BALL IMPACT LOCATIONS

INCLUDING WHIFFS

BALL IMPACT LOCATIONS

This club is very simple to hit on the center of the face consistently, but distance is quite short. It is very accurate and never misses the fairway.

This club is the hardest to hit on the center of the face, but when you do, it is quite long hitting. It is also the poorest for directional control and will seldom land in the fairway.

play. Too long a club will not provide adequate directional control; but will hit the ball a longer distance only if you can hit it on the face center. Too short a club will sacrifice distance but will be more accurate. An exaggerated example of this to make a point is shown in Figure 2-14. During the club length fitting process the club fitter will use special impact decals that will be affixed to the club face. The golfer hits a number of shots to establish a pattern. The club fitter is looking at trajectory, directional con-trol, distance, clubhead speed and your comments on feel. He combines this with an analysis of your impact decal hit pattern. During this process you are being handed various length metal wood and iron test clubs to hit. This is a very interesting and enlightening part of the fitting process. When a launch monitor is used to de-termine length that accurately depicts ball impact locations; decals may not be necessary. I personally like to at least use a few decals so the golfer can be confident that the launch monitor is accurate. If you would like to find out your hitting impact patterns with your present clubs, all you need to do is pur-chase some metal wood, iron and/or putter impact decals (available from The GolfWorks). Also, Labelon brand tape found in office supply stores works well. If you are going to do this

with your irons, do it with your 9 iron, 5 iron and the longest iron you carry plus the driver. Keep in mind that a main determining factor in fitting club length is the golfer’s ball striking abil-ity. As expertise increases, the ball im-pact patterns get more and more consistent and closer together. Here is a very important point: If you could look at a tour player’s clubs, particularly their irons, you would see a round circle wear spot on every club. This spot would coincidentally be located exactly on that particular clubhead’s center of gravity or sweet spot. The point to make, however, is that touring professionals do not go crazy on longer and longer club lengths for added distance. Most actually play moderate length clubs because accuracy and consistency is more important than distance, of which they have plenty. The guys who do go crazy over longer length clubs are the longest drive contest players. All they need is one in the fairway to make it count. We need all of them in the fairway to score better. Here is something to keep in mind. I have found in fitting golfers and in using golfers to test clubs that many times the shorter driver length will hit the ball the farthest. The reason is that the golfer is hitting the ball closer to the middle of the club face eliminating the distance robbing clubhead twisting

27

from off center hits. More energy is ap-plied to the ball and the shot feels more consistently solid to the golfer. Now that you have a better under-standing of fitting club length, you should also know that your input re-garding your comfort factor with longer clubs when working with a club fitting professional is important. Most golfers we work with can handle longer clubs with the new technology shafts and clubheads which give all of us what we are looking for - more dis-tance with control. Men: A good rule of thumb is to not exceed 45" on your driver and 38" based on a 5 iron. Women: Do not exceed 43½" on your driver and 37" based on a 5 iron. 5. GRIP SIZE The grip provides the golfer the only physical contact with the golf club. The size of the grip under both hands and the material it is made of gives the golfer a certain grip feel. This grip feel can enhance how the golfer mentally perceives the club or it may detract from it. One of the main problems I have discovered is that most golfers are not aware of poorly transmitted grip feel. This is usually caused by too small a grip, too large a grip; or in most cases, a dirty, slick or hardened worn-out grip.

Fitting the proper golf grip to an indi-vidual not only includes determining proper grip size, but may also need to address different preferences and physical needs. For instance, a golfer with arthritis or general soreness in one or both hands can be fit to an arthritic grip. Arthritic grips are generally designed to feel softer and install to a much larger size under both the right and left hand of the player. The softer feel and larger size of the arthritic grip allows it to be more eas-ily held during the swing while exert-ing a lesser amount of hand pressure than normally would be required. Some tour players and low handicap-pers prefer round grips vs. the stan-dard ribbed grips. A rib grip has a raised rib along the back length of the grip which allows golfers to more easily align the club face to the target with greater repeatability and is highly recommended. Those that prefer round grips are usually good players who prefer to align the clubhead to the target without the influence of a rib reminder. Why is it important to fit grip size? The proper grip size should give the golfer a comfortable feeling at address and positive control during the swing. It should not inhibit normal wrist action as the clubhead moves into the impact zone.


A grip which is too large for a particular golfer could do the following: • Decrease clubhead feel. • Inhibit wrist action by not allowing

the golfer’s wrists to roll the clubhead square before impact causing the ball to be pushed to the right.

• Cause the golfer to “choke” down on the grip where it is smaller in diameter and thus feels better. This reduces swing speed by effectively shortening the club.

A grip which is too small for a particular golfer could do the following: • The clubhead may twist at impact

because the golfer cannot get a firm hold on the club.

• The golfer may squeeze too tightly to “hold on” to the club, thus inhibiting his wrist action before impact.

• If the player holds the club with normal grip pressure he may now have “overactive” wrist rotation causing the ball to be pulled left of the target.

• Cause the golfer to hold the club too far out on the end where the grip is larger and feels better, thus increasing the golfer’s chances of “loosing” the club at the top of the backswing and reducing ball control.

How is the proper grip size fit to the golfer? The best way to fit grip size is to find a display of sample grip sizes mounted on short sections of golf shafts. These are used by most club fitters. The grip sizes are usually shown on the grip dis-play and the grip itself. The following sizes are the most common displayed.

Golf Grip Fitting Sizes Ladies’ Men’s

3/64" oversize 1/16" oversize 1/32" oversize 3/64" oversize 1/64" oversize 1/32" oversize Standard size 1/64" oversize 1/64" undersize Standard size Additional mounted grips may include:

Arthritic styles and various popular putter grips.

The club fitter usually starts out by handing the golfer a standard size grip. The golfer is asked to take his normal grip on the club while assuming his normal address position. It is impor-tant here to use your same grip pres-sure as you normally would when striking the ball. Next, remove the right hand from the club (left for left-handers) and with the left hand re-maining in the exact same gripped position, bring it up so that the finger-tips are visible. If the two center finger-tips dig into the heel of the palm, the grip is too small. If the fingertips barely touch or just miss touching the heel of the palm, the grip is correct.

29

If the fingertips are separated more than 1/8" from the heel of the palm, the grip is too large. See Figure 2-15. The official industry standard size grip is generally too small for most men golfers today who will usually fit better to a 1/64" oversize grip. You need to be aware of the manufac-turers standard grip sizing, mainly that there is no standard. Every year I measure all the grip sizes put on by most all golf club manufacturers. They vary in size not only by manufacturer but also within the manufacturer’s various models. This means that I cannot establish a rule of thumb for you to follow. The good news is that most all club fitters have easy to use accurate gauges to measure grip size and they can also install grips to exact size requirements.

Regardless of how you are fit for proper grip size, either by the specially mounted display grip sizes or simply having your grip size checked by using the grip on the clubs you intend to buy; you can get an accurate fit. The method used usually depends on whether you are buying a custom built set of clubs or simply getting your clubs regripped (use display grip sizes) or whether you are buying clubs off the shelf to be fit (use the club you in-tend to buy or display grip sizes). The point here is to get all the clubs in your set with the same grip sizes and tapers. Tip: Always use the same grip manu-facturer and style of grip throughout the set (putter excepted) even if it means regripping some of your clubs. Do not overlook this. Too many golfers do and they will never know how much more consistent their shot mak-ing could have been. I do not know of one touring professional that plays with more than one style grip. Learn from them on this one. If you really want more information on grips, I have a 40 minute DVD titled “Learn All About Grips”. Why is the grip size sometimes increased under the right hand? Here is something that very few golfers know about, but it is a proven fitting fact that can dramatically improve play and golfer confidence. Golf grips are tapered down smaller from top to


FIG. 2-15

Determining the Proper Grip Size

The two center

fingers are used to

check for proper grip

size.

GRIP TOO LARGE Fingers do not touch palm GRIP SIZE CORRECT Fingers barely touch palm GRIP TOO SMALL Fingers dig in palm

bottom. For many golfers this taper is too great causing the grip size under the right hand to be too small. This can cause an uncomfortable feeling and can unconsciously result in two bad things happening. One is the golfer in-creases right hand grip pressure which can inhibit the normal release and ro-tation of the clubhead. The second is the golfer tends to regrip the club with the right hand thumb and forefinger before or during the swing. This can result in directional control problems and a tendency to produce less than solid hits. The recommendation of the club fitter may be to increase the grip size under the right hand a greater amount than under the left hand thus making the grip taper slightly less gradual. Grip size gauges are available for both the left hand and the right hand. A club fitter should always have them both. The same grip size gauges work for left hand golfers also. If you would like to do a test to see how this would feel using your current golf clubs, do this: Obtain some “Gauzetex®” or similar style tape from your local drugstore. This is a cheese-cloth like sticky tape used for bandag-ing. This tape sticks to itself, so it wraps around your present grips eas-ily and stays put. If you ever watched a golf tournament on TV, this is the white tape that Scott Verplank uses on his putter grip to build up its size.

The middle of your right hand when gripping the club is approximately 5" down from the end of the club. So, measure down 4" and make some kind of mark. Next measure down 7" and make another mark. Apply two layers of tape in this 4" to 7" area. This is equivalent to increasing the grip size under your right hand by slightly over 1/64". Hit some shots and see how it feels. Now apply two more layers of tape and try hitting again. This is equivalent of slightly less than 3/64" oversize. If either of these temporary increases in size under the right hand feel better to you when hitting shots, be sure to tell your club fitter. If not, just stick with the standard grip taper in the proper fitted grip size.

Finally, if you just want to temporarily feel what an oversize grip will feel like or to fit yourself to grip size, you can put on layers of Gauzetex® tape from the top of the grip down to 7" or more. See Figure 2-16 on the following page.

Gauzetex® Size Chart

2 layers = slightly over 1/64" oversize

3 layers = 1/32" oversize

4 layers = slightly under 3/64" oversize

5 layers = slightly over 3/64" oversize

6 layers = 1/16" oversize

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6. SWINGWEIGHT, TOTAL WEIGHT AND FREQUENCY (CPM) The swingweight balance of a golf club can be described as a measurement of the golf club’s weight distribution or more accurately as the weight relation-ship of the grip, shaft and clubhead in a given club length. Swingweight is measured on a special purpose golf club swingweight scale which provides readings in letter/number combina-tions such as C-7, C-8, C-9 (lighter swingweights) D-0, D-1, D-2, D-3 (average swingweights) and D-4, D-5, D-6 (heavier swingweights). See Figure 2-17.

The total weight of a golf club is very easy to understand and is simply the total overall weight of the golf club measured on a weight scale. See Figure 2-18. Frequency is a measure of a golf club’s (or golf shaft’s) oscillations over a period of time when the grip end or un-gripped shaft end of the club is clamped in a holding device. For our purposes here we are most interested in a complete golf club being measured and what it means. Frequency is meas-ured in cycles per minute (CPM). The grip is rigidly clamped and the head is pulled down and released and it bobs up and down through a timing device that reads out in CPM. The CPM num-ber is actually telling us the actual in-stalled flex of the golf shaft in a club built to this length and with this par-ticular head weight. The main idea of all this is to have each club within a set (set of irons, set of fairway metals), to graph in a straight line on a certain slope. The driver is also measured to determine its actual installed flex, but it is noted as a single club. See Figure 2-19.


FIG. 2-16

FIG. 2-17 FIG. 2-18

Using Gauzetex® tape to temporarily

increase grip size.

Wrap each layer of tape butting it edge

to edge and not overlapping it.

Measuring Swingweight Balance

Swingweight Scale

Measuring Total Weight

Standard Weighing Scale

The club fitter will be able to check swingweight, total weight and fre-quency if necessary. Not every club fitter has a frequency machine, but it is a very necessary piece of equipment because of its ability to quickly and ac-curately diagnose a problem (usually shaft, but not always) in a golfer’s clubs. If you have one or more clubs you simply cannot hit consistently, the first thing I would do is check its fre-quency. Next, I would check the swing-weight. Next, I would push a weight checker rod down from the grip end to see if the shaft was loaded up with lead to swingweight it at the factory. Finally in these initial troubleshooting steps, I would check the grip size and condition, club length, and then I would check for the proper lie angle. This should detect over 90% of golf club problems. From the golfer’s perspective, the swinging balance or swinging feel of a club, which is a factor of the swing-weight, total weight and frequency (CPM), should be such that it provides the golfer with the best chance of prop-

erly timing the hit. Therefore, the three of these together are important factors in obtaining the proper ball tra-jectory, directional control, ball carry, feel and the general playability of the club. The golf club designer uses his knowl-edge of each golf club component and its specifications to put together a combination of grip weight, shaft weight, shaft flex characteristics, head weight and head mass and dimen-sional properties to enable a golf club to hit a golf ball. This is substantiated through mechanical golfer and actual golfer testing to make each golf club model perform for a specific golfer type or for as broad a range of golfers as possible. The trained fitting profes-sional using different fitting test clubs will fine tune the golf club’s adjustable parameters to each individual golfer. However, keep in mind that swing-weight, total weight and frequency (CPM) are really not separate fitting variables and will mostly be deter-mined by the golf head model, shaft and grip selected as well as the proper

33

CPM

FIG. 2-19

Measuring Frequency

CYCLES PER MINUTE

CLUBHEAD IS PULLED DOWN AND RELEASED

ALLOWING SHAFT TO OSCILLATE

Here is an interesting exercise for you to do with one or two clubs in your present set. This is simply an exercise to let you feel the difference in hitting shots with different swingweights and the results you get only apply to these clubs. Also, we cannot easily make your clubheads lighter, only heavier, so it’s only half a test. Here is what to do: First, hit a few shots with your 6 iron (any middle iron will do.) Next take a quarter which is equivalent to approximately 3 swingweights and tape it to the middle of the iron head on the back side. Use a strong tape such as duct tape, or electrician’s tape. Hit a few more shots. Which feels better and/or seems to perform better? You can also do this with your driver, but tape the quarter on the sole and toward the middle of the face. Again, this is for your information to better understand swingweight and how a change in swingweight both feels and performs. You can also use 2 quarters to go up 6 swingweights for a bigger feel differ-ence. Remember, when you made the clubhead heavier you also made the golf shaft feel more flexible during the swing. If you can swing this new head weight as fast as the original weight, you will gain distance. Usually how-ever, swing speed decreases slightly for less distance; but the golfer usually increases shot accuracy and achieves more solid feeling shots.

You should start to see that hitting clubs from different manufacturers with different swingweights, different lengths and different shaft types and flexes is the way to be properly fit. If you build your own clubs you can work through this in a methodical way and on your schedule. Actually, this is what the touring professionals are doing every day at each tour stop. The next tournament you go to stand around the manufacturers’ tour vans where they do the assembly, alter-ations and repairs for the pros and you will see just about every player at one time or another working on a better fit to their clubs. 7. SET MAKE-UP The United States Golf Association (USGA) limits a golfer to carrying no more than 14 clubs during a round of golf. So why not play with the 14 clubs that will do the most good? Just be-cause manufacturers offer their stock sets a certain way should not limit or influence the choice of how a set should be made up to best suit you. The good news about taking a close look at the best set make-up is that the manufacturers are now offering a wider variety of specialty clubs. Some of these include Hybrids, higher and lower lofted metals, trouble metals and wider sole wedges.


It was not that long ago that every set included a 2 iron and a 4 wood or 4 fairway metal; but in the last 15 to 20 years the 1 iron and 2 irons are basi-cally gone. Today, some iron set make-ups start with a 3 iron but most start with a 4 iron and a few with a 5 iron. The fairway metals still may start with a 3 or 5 and occasionally you can find a few 4 fairway metals out there. Hy-brids have significantly changed the way we put our irons and fairway metals together into a playing set. How do we find our best set make-up? Before answering this question keep in mind that your personal evaluation of your ideal set make-up after reading the following material is just as impor-tant to the club fitter as his discussion and recommendation to you. The more you help and participate in the process the better. Here are the things to consider:

1. How do you hit your long irons (3, 4, and 5 irons)? How much confidence do you have in them? We’ve already noted earlier in the book that long irons are harder to hit because of their length and reduced loft angles. Bottom line: You need to have the skill to hit the ball very close to the middle of the face with reasonable consistency to get a solid feeling shot with a long iron.

The alternative to each long iron is to use the equivalent distance fairway metal or hybrid club in its place. Why would you want to consider a fairway metal or hybrid club?

Fairway Metal vs. Iron vs. Hybrid Distance Equivalency A Very General Guide

Fairway Metals Irons Hybrids 4 Metal = 1 or 2 Iron = –

5 Metal = 2 or 3 Iron = 20º



11 Metal = 6 or 7 Iron = –

• The trajectory of fairway metals is usually higher with more back-spin and less roll versus iron trajectory in the equivalents shown above.

• Hybrid trajectories are usually between fairway metal and iron trajectories.

• Since specifications vary widely within the industry, use this chart as a beginning guide.

First, even though all fairway metals and most hybrids are built to longer club lengths than the long irons they replace, they tend to have more shaft flexibility by design, making them more forgiving and easier to hit. Also, the loft angles of the fairway metals and hybrids generally are greater than the loft angles of the long irons they are meant to replace. More loft makes

35

them easier to get airborne and the longer playing lengths offset any loss of distance that might occur with the added loft. The greater loft also in-creases backspin, resulting in better bite and less roll (Good for hitting into greens). The general feeling when using the higher lofted fairway metals and hybrids is that of being able to swing easier, with better control and more solid feeling ball contact. Also, your confidence level increases be-cause you simply hit more consistent shots more of the time. We also must recognize that there are golfers that like long irons, hit them quite well and have confidence in them. However, the majority of golfers would benefit from some kind of tradeoff in at least replacing their longest iron with the equivalent fair-way metal or hybrid club. A possible set make-up could be as follows: 4-9 irons, PW, SW, Lob Wedge (60º), 1, 3, 6 and 7 woods. Another could be 5-9 irons, GW, SW, Driver, 3 wood, 20° (or 18º), 24°, 28° hybrids. Just some ideas to think about.

2. Where do you play? What kind of golf course conditions do you usually find? This is a good time to think about the courses you play and the type of shots required.

First of all, do you hit from the rough frequently and is it higher, thicker, tough stuff to get out of? If this is the case you should try a “trouble fairway metal” with weight in the sole and pos-sibly runners on the sole or maybe just a high lofted fairway metal such as a 6 or 7 or 9. The advantage of specialty trouble clubs is they have features which do more than simply using higher lofted fairway metals. For ex-ample, trouble clubs are usually slightly smaller to much smaller in head size and they have added weight very low in the clubhead to lower the head’s center of gravity. Some have modified lofts in relation to club length. (Example: 7 fairway metal loft and 5 fairway metal length for more distance once you get the ball out of trouble.) In a nutshell, they are simply easier to hit because they cut through the rough, extract balls that sit low in the rough, get the ball airborne and provide reasonable distance because of their lower center of gravity. They also make great clubs that are easier to hit from hardpan surfaces when an iron will not provide enough distance and or trajectory to get on the green. Here is another area to consider regarding course conditions as we look at chipping, pitching and sand shots from around the green from either the fairway, rough or bunkers. This takes a little thought to evaluate since it involves much of the wedge game.


The recommendation of a professional club fitter or your home golf profes-sional if they are different can really help here. Questions to ask yourself:

• Are the greens elevated or flat with the fairway?

• Are there bunkers? A lot? What type of sand, hard, lots of gravel, or soft? Usually raked or loosened? Higher cut lips, no lips or over-hanging lips?

• Is the grass low, high or uncut around the greens? Do they have one, two or three cuts from the green surface to the rough?

Here is what this means:

• You usually can’t run the ball onto elevated greens. This usually

requires a wedge shot or higher lofted iron.

• If the elevated green has bunkers you may need a higher lofted, higher spin, 60º wedge to hit the ball over the bunker and be able to

stop it. • If the cuts around the green put

you into fairly deep grass three feet off the green, then your 8 iron is probably useless requiring a wedge chip.

• If you play out of well raked fine sand traps with lips you will need a fairly wide sole or higher bounce sand wedge to keep from digging.

(See Section Eighteen— for the definition of “Bounce”)

• If you play out of coarse sand or harder bunkers with lips you may need a normal width sole sand wedge with average to less solebounce. Sometimes a pitching wedge will also work well here.

Remember, it is quite possible if you analyze your rounds of golf (and you should) that you hit the most shots with your putter, next all your wedges combined, followed by your driver. The point here is to evaluate your wedge play and course conditions to help you and your club fitter deter-mine which wedges you should carry. The best set make-up for you can make a big difference in how well you score and can definitely improve your confi-dence level.

NOTES:

37


Section Three WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN AVERAGE GOLFER HITS A DRIVE?

The Facts about Shaft Flexing, Clubhead Position, Impact and Ball Flight Very few golfers realize exactly what happens when they step up on the tee, pull out their driver and hit the golf ball down the fairway. It is interesting to look at a few more common actions and reactions of the hit because it shows how little control a golfer has over the shot once a certain point on the downswing is passed. After reading this section you should be able to ap-preciate the many variables of golf club design and fitting to better under-stand how they relate to performance. After reading this information be sure to watch some of the high speed swing sequences that are now being shown by some of the major networks during their golf tournament telecasts. Instead of listening to their often incorrect analysis relating to impact footage, simply look closely at the shaft bend-ing and clubhead movement during all phases of the swing sequence. You will be looking at things that the average viewer will miss. The Backswing The logical starting place to begin is with the backswing. As the golfer begins his takeaway, the clubhead does

not immediately follow because its total mass (weight) is at rest and re-sists being put into motion. This resist-ance causes the shaft to bend or flex slightly resulting in the head lagging behind the shaft. See Figure 3-1. The head remains in a following or lagging position through the remainder of the backswing. The Downswing The clubhead will now reverse its direction at the very top of the back-swing as soon as the golfer begins the downswing. The clubhead mass (weight) again resists movement causing the shaft to flex in the opposite direction of the takeaway, thus leaving the clubhead again in a lagging posi-tion or following behind the bending shaft on the downswing. However, because the clubhead is out on the end of the shaft during the downward acceleration, it accelerates more quickly and is going faster than any other point along the shaft, thus caus-ing the clubhead to catch up with the shaft and pass ahead of it. Now the

FIG. 3-1

The TakeawayCLUBHEAD LAGS BEHIND SHAFT CAUSED BY CLUBHEAD’S RESISTANCE TO INITIAL MOVEMENT

clubhead is not lagging the shaft, but rather leading ahead of the flexed shaft as it approaches impact with the golf ball. See Figure 3-2. The fact that the clubhead is leading the shaft before and up to impact shows that the clubhead is more or less a free wheeling object. Its total stored up energy to be applied to the golf ball at impact is almost solely dependent on the clubhead mass itself and its veloc-ity. More specifically, E (energy ap-plied to ball) = ½ M (clubhead mass) x V² (clubhead velocity squared). The shaft also has a very important role to play. It’s job is to bring the club-head into impact exactly the same every time a golfer swings. The wrong shaft for a golfer with a specific swing will not accomplish this. This is why proper fitting is so important in select-ing the correct shaft flexing and twist-ing properties.

Before impact takes place there are four major specification changes that occur due to shaft flexing. First, be-cause the head is leading the shaft, the flexing forward causes the club face to hook (close) slightly. Each 1" of shaft flexing causes the face to close (hook) approximately 2 degrees. Second, the loft actually increases due to this same shaft flexing. Again, refer to Figure 3-2. Third, as already discussed, the shaft is flexed so as to have the clubhead leading it, but it is also flexing in an-other plane causing the lie of the golf club to flatten slightly. This happens because the center of mass or center of gravity of the clubhead is not in line with the centerline or axis of the shaft. Therefore, during the downswing the centrifugal force acts through the cen-ter of gravity of the clubhead causing the shaft to bend downward resulting

FIG. 3-2

39

Just Before Impact

THE CLUBHEAD IS LEADING THE SHAFT CAUSING THE CLUB FACE ANGLE TO CLOSE AND THE LOFT ANGLE TO INCREASE.

The Downswing

CENTRIFUGAL FORCE

NORMAL LIE

FLATTENED LIE

CENTER OF GRAVITY

FIG. 3-3

flattening of the lie, usually one degree to 2 degrees maximum depending mostly on the shaft flex and head speed. See Figure 3-3. Fourth, because of all the shaft flexing in various directions, the golf club’s length actually shortens. A driver’s length would shorten by approximately 1/4". The elapsed time from the very top of the backswing to just before impact with the golf ball takes approximately 1/5 of a second. During this short time an average male golfer will generate a head speed of approximately 90 to 100 MPH. See Figure 3-4. Men touring pro-fessionals range from approximately 115 to 135 MPH with the average around 124 MPH. A touring pro who could swing a driver 132 MPH would send the ball off at approximately 177 MPH and the resultant carry would be about 280 yards. Women tour pros range from 85 MPH to over 120 MPH. The average would be

estimated at 105 MPH. In tests con-ducted with junior girls (10-12 years old) using a 38½" driver, clubhead speeds ranged from 35 MPH to 65 MPH with the average being around 50 MPH. Impact The total duration of impact from the time the clubhead first contacts the ball until the ball leaves the club face takes only 5/10,000 of a second. During this time the clubhead travels a total distance of ¾" to 1". See Figure 3-5.

FIG. 3-4

FIG. 3-5

FIG. 3-6

Just Before Impact Duraction Of Impact/Ball & Club face90 TO

100 MPH HEAD SPEED

3/4" TO 1" CLUBHEAD TRAVEL, 5/10,000 SEC.

DEPENDING ON BALL CONSTRUCTION AND COMPRESSION, AT 75° BALL TEMPERATURE, THE CLUB FACE COMPRESSES THE BALL 15 TO 30% OF ITS ORIGINAL DIAMETER

CLUBHEAD APPLIES APPROX. 1 TON OF FORCE

TO THE BALL AT IMPACT


The maximum force (energy applied to the ball) at impact approaches 2,000 pounds, or one ton and causes the club face to compress the golf ball 15% to 30% of its original diameter. See Figure 3-6. During impact of club face and ball, the clubhead speed slows to approximately 82 MPH and the ball leaves the club face at about 135 MPH, spinning back-wards between 1,500 and 3,000 revo-lutions per minute with a driver. See Figure 3-7. The collision of club face and ball has now caused the shaft to flex backwards so that once again the clubhead is lagging behind the shaft in-

stead of leading the shaft as it was when approaching impact. During any golf shot, the golfer gets a certain sensation of feel at the exact moment the club face strikes the ball. Right? Wrong! The golfer does in fact feel the hit, but because of the time required for the impact to travel through the clubhead, up the shaft, into the golfer’s hands and register with the brain, the golf ball is already 10" to 12" from the club face and in flight. So the golfer does not feel the hit when it actually takes place; rather it is felt when it has already left the club face. See Figure 3-8. In addition the centrifugal force ex-erted downward and pulling on the golfer’s hands at impact is the equiva-lent of 40 to 60 pounds. See Figure 3-9 on the next page. Another interesting fact of impact is that the direction the ball initially travels is a result of two factors, the

41

FIG. 3-7

#9 Iron Driver

9,000 TO 13,000 RPM BACKSPIN 1,500 TO 3,000 RPM BACKSPIN

FIG. 3-8

GOLF BALL TRAVELS 10" TO 12"

BEFORE GOLFER FEELS IMPACT

club face angle at impact and the clubhead path. The face angle, however, is the more important influencing factor of the two. See Figure 3-10. Also see Section Seven, “Ball Direction and Curve (Club face Angle and Clubhead Path)”. The Follow-Through Thus far during the swing, the club-head has been alternately lagging be-hind and leading the shaft as it flexed. As was mentioned, the clubhead has assumed a lagging position as a result of the impact with the ball which

slowed down the clubhead enough to allow the shaft to catch up and flex in the opposite direction. Now during the follow-through up to the point where the clubhead reaches approximately waist high; the clubhead alternately leads ahead of and lags behind the shaft as it flexes. From the time of impact to the waist high position, this occurs at least three times. It can be as-sumed that this constant flexing of the shaft causing alternating positions of the clubhead from impact into the fol-low-through is one of the more impor-tant factors which determine the feel of a shot. Because the word “feel” as a golfer utilizes it is so vague; it is impos-sible to segment and understand all the factors that determine it. However, after reading this section it should be easier to understand some of the more meaningful variables which must con-tribute to feel and also the success of the shot. Golf Ball Flight Characteristics Take a look at Figure 3-11 and it will show you what makes a golf ball fly and why it stays in the air.

FIG. 3-9

FIG. 3-10

CEN

TRIF

UG

AL

FORC

E

40 TO 60 LBS. PULL

CLUB FACE ALIGNMENT (ANGLE)

CLUBHEAD PATHBALL FLIGHT DIRECTION


Golf ball aerodynamics and physics that are used today to design golf ball performance characteristics are far more technical than I could possibly understand. The basics of golf ball flight, however, will always be the same and is not all that complicated to understand. The golf ball will always be round, it will always have some kind of dimples or bumps, it will be launched with spin and it will fly through the air. Here is what happens from impact on: Once the ball is impacted, it is de-formed somewhat. When it leaves the club face in a deformed state, it is dif-ferent aerodynamically until it regains its perfectly round shape. Once it is round, moving in a forward direction and spinning backward (back spin), it assumes its normal aerodynamic prop-erties. As air smashes into the front of

the ball, the dimples trap air into them and drag more of the air up and over the top of the ball than passes under-neath the ball. This creates a low- pressure area on top of the ball. Low pressure on top of something (like an airplane wing) creates lift. As the ball is spinning through the air at a certain forward speed, a low-pressure area is formed behind the ball that introduces a drag component. While all this is going on, the earth’s center of gravity is pulling down on the ball because it has a weight component. The weight of the ball is pulling it to earth; the lift, drag and air around the ball create friction that wants to slow down its spin rate and also its forward speed. All three of these components of lift, drag and weight coupled with the ball’s spin rate and initial velocity, cre-ate the trajectory or shape of the ball’s

43

FIG. 3-11

Golf Ball Flight Principles

Section Four UNDERSTANDING THE GOLF BALL “FLYER” EFFECT AND WHAT CAUSES IT

A “flyer” occurs when the golf ball slides up the club face at impact. Nor-mal shots occur from a dry impact which creates adequate friction be-tween the club face and the ball. This friction eliminates or greatly reduces the ball’s tendency to slide up the club face. See Figure 4-1. So, when the face of the clubhead or the golf ball is lubri-cated in some manner (water, grass, etc.) a flyer will usually occur. This is why we have a tendency to hit flyers when the fairway grass is wet or damp or we are in the rough and during im-pact some grass and/or moisture is squished between the club face and ball. Here is what happens: When a golf ball slides up the club face at impact it will usually launch at a higher trajectory with less backspin. The higher trajec-tory coupled with the reduced drag from less ball spin will in turn create less ball friction through the air, which results in a longer ball carry. So, flyers fly longer but with reduced backspin so they have less “bite” when they land. Now, here is another important part of this for the golfer to under-stand: The greater the loft a club has the greater the flyer effect. In other words, a 9 iron with a steep loft angle is more likely to have a ball slide farther up the face than a less lofted 3 iron.

Also a 9 iron shot has a far greater ball spin rate than a 3 iron hit so the reduc-tion in spin rate on a 9 iron flyer shot is proportionately greater than a 3 iron. Bottom line: The short irons on average for a normal golfer will generate about 8-12 additional yards from a flyer, the middle irons 4-8 addi-tional yards from a flyer and the long irons 2-4 additional yards. Fairway metals average about 3-6 additional yards from flyers. It is impossible to accurately predict the actual flyer effect on additional distance because of all the variables of swing speed, lubricant amount and type, face groove specifications, loft angle, ball type and so on. The yardages I just gave are ball park and most importantly allow you to plan better in guessing what will happen when playing in wet condi-tions or when grass is trapped between the club face and ball.

FRICTION

FORCE

GROUND LINE

FIG. 4-1

The Friction Component During Impact

NOTES: 1. AS THE BALL FLATTENS ON THE CLUB FACE, FRICTION INCREASES BECAUSE THE IMPACT FORCE INCREASES. 2. THE AMOUNT OF FRICTION IS DETERMINED BY: • DRY OR LUBRICATED FACE • SURFACE ROUGHNESS OF FACE • GROOVE SHAPE • LOFT ANGLE • FORCE PATH OF THE CLUBHEAD


45

Section Five DEFINING FEEL

First of all, there are many opinions about the definition of feel. My defini-tion of feel correlates directly to Maltby Playability Factor (MPF). See page 100 for an explanation of MPF. Basically, when a golfer strikes a golf ball it either feels good or it feels bad. Sometimes the feeling is in-be-tween good and bad. When we say that we hit the ball good, most of us are say-ing that we hit the ball solid. When we say we hit it bad, it could be the result of a hit low on the face of the club or out toward the toe or even into the heel. These are usually poor feeling shots and most golfers would probably say that the shot did not feel solid. Whether a shot feels solid or good is simply defined as a shot that is hit within the club’s horizontal sweet spot and the center of gravity of the club-head is driven below that of the golf ball’s center of gravity. So, it can be said that the lower the center of gravity in the clubhead (easier to get it under the balls c.g.) and the bigger the horizontal sweet spot on the face (wider hitting area for solid shots), the more solid shots that will be hit more of the time. MPF basically defines this by putting lower center of gravity clubheads and wider horizontal hitting area club

heads in the higher playability cate-gories. It just so happens that these type clubheads are the easiest to hit solid more of the time. Clubhead de-signs that are harder to hit (higher cen-ters of gravity and smaller horizontal sweet spots), are usually harder to hit consistently solid. So, the skill level of the player is quite important in deter-mining just how good or bad a certain design clubhead will feel. Obviously, the average golfer (actually all golfers) will get more consistently better feel from higher MPF clubhead designs. A final point: Feel can be influenced by sound. Various clubhead designs along with varying impact locations can pro-duce different sounds. Each individual has their own opinion on what the sounds represent, but they are a factor to consider. Try this experiment. Put a set of foam ear plugs deeply into your ears. Top this off with a set of ear muffs. Now, either strike a few putts or hit some balls on the range. You will experience a completely different kind of feel. Everything I said above is still true about the good and the bad hits, but your perception as to how you evaluate this is very different. As a matter of fact, it will drive you crazy to hit balls in this manner because the sense of sound is very much a part of feel and to play good golf you definitely need all your senses.

Section Six BALL DIRECTION AND CURVE (CLUB FACE ANGLE VS CLUBHEAD PATH)

FACT: When you hit a golf ball, it is going to fly in some direction and may or may not be curving right or left. It would be good to define how this happens and understand what the determining factors are. Knowing this can help us to play better but also to understand how to actually work (curve right or left) the golf ball. Take a look at Figure 6-1 which shows the nine basic ball flight possibilities. Can you pick out the one or possibly two that most applies to your game?

There are a number of variables in the golf club and also in your swing which create the nine ball flight possibilities above. The club fitter can recommend custom features to adjust your ball flight but you also need to understand that a consistent and proper club face angle and clubhead path at impact is achieved through swing instruction and/or practice. Of course, a good un-derstanding of path and face angle will make it much easier for you to work out your problems on the practice tee or to fully maximize a golf swing lesson. Look at Figure 6-2 for a visual explanation of how club face angle and clubhead path affect ball flight direction. Just from looking at this

9

7

5

31

2

4

6

8

FIG. 6-1

The Nine Ball Flight Possibilites

FLIGHT PATTERN KEY 1 STRAIGHT 2 STARTS LEFT – CURVES RIGHT (FADE) 3 STARTS RIGHT – CURVES LEFT (DRAW) 4 STARTS STRAIGHT – CURVES LEFT (DRAW/HOOK) 5 STARTS STRAIGHT – CURVES RIGHT (FADE/SLICE) 6 STARTS LEFT – FLIES STRAIGHT (PULL) 7 STARTS RIGHT – FLIES STRAIGHT (PUSH) 8 STARTS LEFT – CURVES LEFT (HOOK) 9 STARTS RIGHT – CURVES RIGHT (SLICE)

CLUB FACE ANGLE TO PATH KEY 1, 6 & 7 CLUB FACE SQUARE TO PATH 2, 5, & 9 CLUB FACE OPEN TO PATH 3, 4 & 8 CLUB FACE CLOSED TO PATH

THE 3 CONDITIONS AT IMPACT


drawing you could probably sketch out the remaining seven ball flight pattern keys shown in Figure 6-1. Here is a more detailed description of Figure 6-2 which shows two examples of club face angle to clubhead path and the resultant initial ball direction and its curving flight path. Assume here that the ball is struck in the center of the face so we do not introduce other variables affecting directional control into the discussion (namely moment of inertia and center of gravity). Notice in both illustrations that the club face angle is square to the target at impact but the clubhead path is rather severe from inside to outside in one and not so severe in the other. Keep in mind that whenever an angle or a difference exists between club face angle and clubhead path at impact (in other words they are not the same and the angle is not 0°), a sideways ball spin component will occur (either with

hooking or slicing sidespin). The result of this is actually referred to as “working the ball”. Whenever you hear someone talking about working the ball, you need to know that it is al-ways a result of the golfers’ manipula-tion of the clubhead’s face angle and path at impact. However, when you read about it in the manufacturer’s ad-vertising, it is always a function of how they positioned the clubhead’s center of gravity. Fact: center of gravity loca-tion (either closer to the heel or farther toward the toe) has very little to do with the golfer’s ability to more easily work the ball. I have proven this with touring professionals using test clubs built to both extremes in center of gravity location and the tour pros can “work” the ball just fine in either case. This is simply perpetuated by manu-facturers who believe the center of gravity should be positioned closer to the shaft centerline of the club to sup-port their 20 year old design philoso-

47

FIG. 6-2

Club face Angle vs. Clubhead Path on Ball Flight

SLIGHT DRAW LEFT MEANS CLUB FACE ANGLE IS SLIGHTLY LEFT OF INITIAL BALL FLIGHT DIRECTION (CLUB FACE IS CLOSED TO PATH) SIMILAR TO FLIGHT PATTERN KEY #3 IN FIG. 6-1

CLUBHEAD PATHCLUB FACE ANGLE

BALL FLIGHT

DIRECTION

SLIGHT AMOUNT OF BALL SIDESPIN

CLUBHEAD PATH

CLUB FACE ANGLE

BALL FLIGHT

DIRECTION

INCREASED AMOUNT OF BALL SIDESPIN

HOOKING CURVE LEFT MEANS CLUB FACE ANGLE IS FARTHER LEFT OF INITIAL BALL FLIGHT DIRECTION (CLUB FACE VERY CLOSED TO PATH) SIMILAR TO FLIGHT PATTERN KEY #4 IN FIG. 6-1

The drawing in Figure 6-2 shows a large angle difference between the clubhead path and the club face angle; hence a lot of counterclockwise hook-ing sidespin is applied to the ball. Here is a more detailed explanation of what is happening in this drawing. First of all, the initial ball flight direction is right of target. Notice that the ball’s direction does not equally divide the angle between club face angle and path direction; but rather it favors the club face angle. The reason for this is the club face angle is a more important influencing factor than the clubhead’s path regarding initial ball direction only. If a percentage could be applied to this, the club face angle would be about 60% to 70% cause of initial ball direction and clubhead path the re-maining 30% to 40%. The resultant ball spin in this example is a very severe hooking sidespin. Since the driver usu-ally only generates 1/4 to 1/5 as much backspin as a 9 iron, the hooking sidespin component on this driver shot would comprise a much larger percentage of the total amount of backspin revolu-tions versus if the same shot occurred on a 9 iron. The sidespin applied to the 9 iron would represent a much smaller percentage when compared to the total backspin revolutions, thus resulting in a less severe hooking tendency. Remember, the greater the backspin (caused by a greater amount of loft)‚ the straighter the ball will fly when

compared to the identical club face angle and clubhead path angles in a less lofted golf club such as a driver. Case in point: How many of us can severely hook or slice a 8 or 9 iron, but how about a driver or a long iron? Next, we are going to do a fun test to demonstrate club face angle and clubhead path. Get a tube or a jar of petroleum jelly. Take your driver and apply a thin coating of this stuff to the face. See Figure 6-3. This is a good time to point out that intentionally applying a lubricant to the club face is illegal according to the U.S.G.A. rules. OK, let’s hit some shots with the driver. Spread the grease around and/or add more after each hit. Hit ap-proximately ten drives. Notice any-thing different? You will not be able to

FIG. 6-3

GREASING UP THE BALL AND/OR CLUB FACE

U.S.G.A. RULE: 4-3 Club face &

5-2 Ball

“Foreign Mate-rial Prohibited”

Penalty:

Disqualification


curve the ball, no slicing and no hook-ing. The ball can still be hit crooked but it will fly in a straight line crooked. Why? Because a slippery substance be-tween the club face and the ball elimi-nates the clubhead path’s influence on golf ball sidespins (hooking and slic-ing) and relies mostly on club face angle at impact to determine ball direc-tion. This really works and that is why it is illegal. As a matter of fact, placing almost anything between the club face and ball will have exactly the same ef-fect. Here are two more examples: There are special illegal tees that are sold with backs on them so the club face at impact hits the tee and the tee hits the ball. See Figure 6-4. If you don’t want to grease up your

driver face and you can’t locate the special illegal tees you can tee the ball up in a paper cup. Set a paper cup upright on the ground and push a tee down through it. Put a ball in the cup and hit it full force with your driver. Once again, you will have no hooking, no slicing, only a straight shot. It may be a crooked straight shot but it will not curve. Also you will not see any distance loss from blasting it through the side of the cup. If you have the right type of friend, make a bet that you can win a match. To handicap yourself (and be a nice guy) you will hit every drive from inside a paper cup. He’ll never realize that you wind up and smash your drive and don’t worry about any hooking or slicing. However, line up the face angle well enough to at least hit every fairway. Finally, some club fitters will use the special tee shown in Figure 6-4 to confirm where your club face angle is at impact. In this manner they can separate club face angle from clubhead path to more easily isolate any possible directional control problems and whether or not they are swing or equipment related.

49

FIG. 6-4

SPECIAL TEE WITH BUILT-IN

BACK

SOFT DRINK CUP WITH BALL TEED THROUGH

BOTTOM

The U.S.G.A. says, “Foreign material shall not be applied to the ball

and/or club face.”

Ordinary Paper Cup (8 or 9oz.) size works

well)

Section Seven UNDERSTANDING MOMENT OF INERTIA (MOI)

The best way to understand Moment of Inertia (M.O.I.) and the best way to ex-plain M.O.I. is to demonstrate it. I have taken a series of photos which explain how to do this. First, keep in mind that M.O.I. is a measurement that deter-mines the resistance of clubhead rota-tion on off center (off horizontal center of gravity) hits. M.O.I. has very little effect on exact horizontal center of gravity hits. Figure 7-1 This is a very sophisticated Moment of Inertia machine made by In-ertia Dynamics which is a division of Rockwell International. This is the same unit that Nike and the U.S.G.A use plus a number of other major golf club manufacturers. It is interesting to note that The GolfWorks was one of the very first companies to buy and use this machine. We have had it since 1995.

It works by mounting any object on the spindle mak-ing sure that the centerline of the spindle projects through the object’s center of gravity.

In this photo we are measuring moment of inertia through the horizontal center of gravity plane, thus the clubhead is mounted on the horizontal center of gravity. If we wanted to know the vertical center of gravity we would mount the clubhead on its toe with the mounting point projecting through the vertical center of gravity. Actually we can make M.O.I. measurements on any clubhead axis we desire as long as the mounting point on the M.O.I. machine projects through the center of gravity plane. The horizontal M.O.I. is the only axis on which the U.S.G.A. has a limitation. It is by far the most important in ex-plaining playability differences from one club to another. The manufactur-ers use other M.O.I axes (mostly verti-cal) in their advertising when making claims but these are more minor and difficult to put into actual playability differences that a golfer would detect. Figure 7-2 This photo shows two ob-jects that look like dumbbells. Each one is the same exact total weight and also the individual components are the exact same weight. The only difference is that one has the weights positioned toward the middle of the rod and the other has the weights positioned out onto the ends of the rod.

MOMENT OF INERTIA

FIG. 7-1


Figure 7-3 The dumbbell with the weights toward the inside is a low M.O.I weight distribution and measures 15.025 oz–in² (ounce inches squared).

Figure 7-4 The dumb-bell with the weights toward the outside is a high M.O.I. weight dis-tribution and measures 95.696 oz-in². Note that this dumbbell’s weight distribution produces an M.O.I. that is over 6 times greater than the dumbbell in Figure 7-3.

Let’s assume that these two dumbbells are actually putters. You could basi-cally impact the ball on the high M.O.I. putter almost anywhere on the face and hardly feel any twisting of the clubhead. The putt would also feel solid and would roll almost the same distance as a center face hit. A high M.O.I. clubhead (any club in the bag) will produce much more energy to the ball on any off center of gravity hit vs. a low M.O.I clubhead. If you struck a putt off center of gravity with the low M.O.I. putter in our example, the putt would feel unsolid, the putter head would rotate at impact and the ball would come up far short of the hole. Figure 7-5 You can easily demonstrate high and low M.O.I. to your customers by using any two wedges or putters. Actually, any other golf club will work, but their lengths are quite long and make the demonstration more cumbersome.

FIG. 7-2

Dumbbells

FIG. 7-3 FIG. 7-4

High M.O.I.

51

BOTH DUMBBELLS ARE THE SAME WEIGHT

Low M.O.I.

15.025 OZ-IN2 95.696 OZ-IN2

FIG. 7-5

Low M.O.I. Demonstration

HEADS TOWARD INSIDE


Using one hand, grasp the two clubs with the heads toward the middle. This is a low M.O.I. demonstration. Simply rotate the two clubs like an airplane propeller, but only rotate them approxi-mately 1/3 revolution clockwise and then 1/3 revolution counter-clockwise and keep repeating a few times. Notice that the clubs rotate rather effort-lessly and you can rotate them quite fast. Figure 7-6 Next, reverse the clubs and grasp them with the heads toward the outside. You now have the grips overlapped in your hand. Next, rotate the clubs as before. Note that this is now very difficult to do as the M.O.I. is very high because the clubhead weight is on the very outside vs. the inside. This configuration greatly resists rotation in the opposite direction. Every time you go from clockwise rotation to counterclock-wise rotation it feels as if you will never get both clubs stopped. Also remember to point out that you have not changed the total weight of the two clubs, only the weight distribution of the two clubs, which also changed the M.O.I.

NOTES:

FIG. 7-6

High M.O.I. Demonstration

HEADS TOWARD OUTSIDE

53

Section Eight HOW MOMENT OF INERTIA (MOI) AFFECTS DRIVER PLAYABILITY

Two of the U.S.G.A. limitations on driver heads are the size and also the M.O.I. The maximum driver head size is 460 c.c. plus a 10 c.c. tolerance mak-ing the absolute maximum legal size 470 c.c. The term c.c. stands for cubic centimeters. The maximum allowable driver head M.O.I. is 5900 g-cm² plus a tolerance of 100 g-cm² making the ab-solute maximum driver head M.O.I. 6000 g-cm². The term g-cm² stands for grams per centimeter squared. Regarding M.O.I. some confusion can exist because the numbers used to ex-press it in our industry can be in differ-ent units. In other words, the Maltby Playability Factor for irons uses oz-in² (ounce/inches squared). Bobby Grace putters and some others use kg-m² (kilograms per meter squared). A num-ber of golf club manufacturers use g-cm² (grams per centimeter squared) as already discussed. The M.O.I. machine that is used in my Golf Club Design Studio can provide M.O.I. readings in 13 different unit formats. The point is that a simple conversion factor can be applied to each format to convert di-rectly and accurately to any other for-mat so they all basically mean the same thing.

History The first modern metal headed drivers (stainless steel) were introduced by TaylorMade toward the end of the 1979 model year. The very successful Tour Burner was introduced in 1983 and was a whopping 140 c.c. driver head size (persimmon at the time was over 200 c.c.). See Figure 8-1. Callaway for example introduced their first stain-less steel metal driver head in 1988 in a Bobby Jones model. The first Big Bertha was first introduced in 1991.

Head sizes in the early 1980’s started off smaller than their persimmon coun-terparts and then gradually be-came similar in size and then bigger in size. Stainless steel as a material had limitations in making larger driver head sizes because it simply was not strong enough to keep the faces from caving in when size was increased beyond its strength limits. New exotic

FIG. 8-1

Head Size Comparison

140 c.c. DRIVER (CIRCA 1983)

460 c.c. DRIVER (MODERN)


driver head materials utilizing tita-nium and graphite and unique head manufacturing methods started the high tech revolution during the mid 1990’s. This allowed designers to make heads bigger and with higher C.O.R.’s (coefficient of restitution or spring face designs). It is interesting to note here that as the heads became larger in c.c. size the M.O.I.’s also became greater as a result. However, the earlier advertis-ing did not tout higher M.O.I.’s but con-centrated mostly on the spring face effect (C.O.R.) which was the hot trend at the time. Modern Day Drivers The M.O.I. measurement for modern day drivers is a function of five basic mass and dimensional properties; the head’s size, material, shape, weight and center of gravity location. Since the head size is limited by the U.S.G.A. and the head weight is dictated by the swingweight we desire; this leaves shape, materials, and center of gravity location as the easiest variables to significantly modify to achieve higher driver M.O.I. We have measured the horizontal M.O.I. of many 450 to 460 c.c. drivers in the Golf Club Design Studio and we have found that they basically range from 4300 to 5200 g-cm². The U.S.G.A. initially proposed a limit on M.O.I. in 2005 of 4750 g-cm² but the manufactur-ers voiced strong opinions about this

limitation and the U.S.G.A relaxed it to a maximum allowable limit of 5900 g-cm². According to Dick Rugge, senior technical director for the U.S.G.A.; the limit was raised because the difference would mean little for golfers in increased performance. Rugge also said that if you were going from 2000 to 3000 g-cm² it would be huge but at the higher level going from 4750 to 5900 g-cm² it would have a much lesser effect. I agree with his assessment. My research and study shows that with current technology and the U.S.G.A. rules limits; it would be very difficult to achieve M.O.I.’s higher than 5400 g-cm². Achieving the U.S.G.A. limit of 5900 g-cm² would require new head manufacturing technology and/or new head materials to be developed. Shape is one of the clubhead design variables left for the manufacturers to use to alter the center of gravity and/or the M.O.I. The U.S.G.A has taken away the easiest way to effec-tively increase M.O.I. by increasing the clubhead size. The manufacturers shape changes coupled with driver head size limitations can only add marginally to the current range of driver M.O.I. In my opinion, this puts the new non traditional driver shapes more into the hot trend category vs. significant increased technology to

55

benefit golfers. This is also saying that there is nothing wrong with the new non-traditional driver shapes. Be sure to actually hit these new shaped drivers before buying and always take along your current driver for an accurate comparison. Be aware the U.S.G.A. limit on M.O.I. is only based on the M.O.I. measurement in the horizontal plane (heel to toe) of the clubhead. Some of the manufactur-ers are also modifying the M.O.I. in other clubhead planes and claiming ad-vantages. One of these is referred to as vertical plane M.O.I. (face to rear). Some even make claims by measuring M.O.I. around the hosel bore centerline. At this time I cannot substantiate or deny their claims but I can tell you that I personally use the driver’s horizontal plane M.O.I coupled with the club-head’s rearward center of gravity loca-tion as two of the more important variables (mass and dimensional prop-erties) in evaluating driver perform-ance. The Bottom Line for the Golfer This is a great time for any golfer to move up to the current 460 c.c. or so drivers and get rid of their older smaller headed driver. The reason is to take advantage of the highest technol-ogy available today which translates into the easiest to hit and straightest hitting drivers ever made. Any golfer moving up to this technology should

immediately notice the benefits in an easier to hit driver with increased distance. This obviously makes selling and fitting clubs easier because we can almost guarantee game improvement and a better golfing experience. The high M.O.I. on modern drivers doesn’t mean much if you have the ability to hit the ball every time on the head’s exact horizontal center of gravity location. However, any mis- hits away from the center of gravity (so-called sweet spot) will feel much more solid, lose less distance and go straighter. The reason for this is that the higher M.O.I on larger headed drivers better resists the clubhead wanting to rotate on off center hits vs. lower M.O.I. driver heads. This club-head rotation occurs around the hori-zontal center of gravity whenever the ball is not struck perfectly and results in less force (distance) applied to the golf ball. Modern large headed drivers with higher M.O.I.’s simply have less rotation on off center hits resulting in less distance loss. It can be said that they also have much larger sweet spots than lower M.O.I. driver heads. Couple all this with much higher C.O.R.’s, increased vertical gear effect, more rearward centers of gravity and the improved flight characteristics of modern golf ball designs and you have the reason why modern large headed drivers hit the ball so much longer and

See “What is C.O.R.?” As long as the U.S.G.A. keeps the current limits on driver head size and most major golf club manufacturers keep building drivers to a very high moment of inertia; most all the current top grade driver heads should all perform exceptionally well.

WHAT IS C.O.R.? C.O.R. stands for Coefficient Of Restitution. This is a measure-ment of the spring face effect or how much help the driver’s flex-ing face increases ball speed at impact. The U.S.G.A. changed its measuring method a few years back to “Characteristic Time” (C.T.) vs. the C.O.R. method they originally started with. The U.S.G.A. limit on C.T. is 239 with a tolerance of 18 for a total C.T. of 257.

It is very important to get correctly fit to the best driver shaft, loft, length, grip size and swingweight. Don’t forget to get a ball fitting on the launch moni-tor and also to remember that the ball must be teed higher for best trajectory because the vertical center of gravity location on most large headed drivers is actually above the vertical center-line of the face.

NOTES:


57

Section Nine PUTTER FITTING VARIABLES – HOW TO PUTT BETTER & PUTTER TIPS

Understanding the 5 Putter Fitting Variables and How They Each Affect Distance and Control of the Putt Putting is nothing more than consistent distance and directional control of the golf ball. This is easier to accomplish if you know the real facts about proper putter fitting. I have a method of explanation that makes this very easy to understand and then the next easy step is for you to go out and do something about it. When discussing putter fitting, it is best to break down each of the five important putter fitting variables and also discuss each regarding its affect on either distance control and/or directional control of the putt. 1. Length Length equally affects both distance control and directional control of the putt and is very important regarding consistency in putting. The correct putter length depends on the type put-ting stroke you use. The most popular putting stroke today is when the golfer is slightly bent over at the waist with the knees slightly bent until the eyes are directly over the ball. The stance is square to the putt line and both arms are hanging down somewhat vertically and directly under the shoulders (the

inside of your elbows should just be brushing your clothing). The ball is ap-proximately positioned off the left heel. The stroke is a pendulum motion using the shoulders as a pivot point (no wrist break) which causes the putter head to naturally swing slightly inside the line on the back stroke to square at impact to slightly inside the line on the follow through. Putter length is measured and fitted with the golfer in this position. Wherever you buy your putters, you will find the putter rack filled with standard length putters mostly measuring 34" and 35" (men’s lengths). Sometimes you will find a few 33" lengths. The problem is that very few golfers actually fit into the 34" and 35" lengths but this constitutes the bulk of all putter sales. Take a look at many of your golfing buddies and look to see if their left elbow is out and away from their body and facing the target during the putting stroke. This is usually a sign of too long a putter for the golfer or they are using the older style of putting. Women’s putters are mostly made standard at 33" and the same informa-tion above applies to women. Both men and women golfers will almost always (I would guess 80% to 90%) fit into shorter length putters than those offered by the manufacturers as standard. The average seems to be about 33" for men. The most popular


putter lengths used on the PGA tour are from 33" to 33½" with a few players shorter and a few longer. Women will usually fit into 31" to 32½" putter lengths. When fitting putters, length should always be the first fitting variable determined.

2. Loft Angle Loft has a much greater affect on dis-tance control than directional control but does affect both. A putter needs loft to be able to putt with any consistency. Research shows the amount of loft at impact needs to be between 3º and 4½º. Here’s why; on a green, when the ball comes to rest it settles down slightly into the grass. When you putt you do not want to drive the ball through the grass to get it up on top but rather you want to lift it out of its depression and place it up on top of the grass. This eliminates the possibility of the ball bouncing which is bad because it makes distance control more difficult. Next, a putt has initial skid and then it eventually goes into pure roll. We want this skid and roll percentage to be as consistent as possible through all

lengths of putts. See Figure 8-1. 3º to 4½º loft on a flat face putter (do not play with curved face putters) will be the best way to accomplish this. If the loft is reduced to say 1º, it is not enough to get the ball out of its depres-sion and it will bounce. If the loft is say 6º, the ball will be lofted too high which will also cause it to bounce. In either case distance control is less consistent because we need the ball skidding and rolling with minimum bouncing. Be wary of any putter manufacturer who tells you that they have a putter design that reduces or eliminates skid on a putt. They usually accomplish this by simply reducing the loft, which in turn reduces the skid. Others claim to do it by moving the center of gravity and some by milling in fancy face lines. What you are looking for is con-sistent skid and roll, not less or more and who says skid is bad anyway. So, pick a putter with 3º to 4½º loft, a flat face and as smooth a face as possible, it’s as simple as that. 3. Lie Angle Lie is almost all directional control in putting and very little in distance control. Because a putter has loft, anytime the lie angle is not properly fit to the individual golfer the ball will not go in the direction your putter head is pointing. Basically when the loft angle is tilted (lie angle not correct) and not parallel to the ground, another angle is

FIG. 8-1

Ball reaction after impact with a putter

SKIDS 14% TO 20% OF DISTANCE

OVERSPIN (ROLLS) 80% TO 86%OF DISTANCE

59

formed which we will call the misdi-rection control angle. A good example to explain this would be a golfer put-ting with the toe sticking up in the air at address. This would mean that the golfer is holding the putter too flat for the putter’s built in lie angle. Another way to say this is that the putter’s lie angle is too upright for the golfer and needs to be adjusted flatter in lie angle to fit properly. Assume the putter in question has 4º loft and is held 4º too flat in lie (toe up). Remember, when a golfer holds a putter too flat in lie (toe up), we refer to this as a putter which is too upright for the golfer. So, if the toe is 4° up in the air we need to flatten the putter’s lie angle by 4° to properly fit the golfer. Because the 4º loft angle is tilted it creates a small misdirection control angle which points to the left. If we hit a 33 foot putt the ball would be pulled 1/4° or 13/4" left of our intended line and would lip out and miss.

See Figure 8-2. If all putters had 0º loft this misdirection control angle would not even exist. However, we would now have more difficulty in achieving good distance control because of too lit-tle loft. Fitting the proper lie angle on a putter is very important and should not be overlooked. 4. Swingweight (Putter Head Weight) Swingweight is used as a means to be sure that the putter’s head weight and the putter’s length have the proper weight relationship between them. This characteristic is a major factor in distance control of the putt. It is also a significant factor in the directional control of the putt. The golfer needs to have enough weight in the head to achieve proper feel and balance of the putter. Too light and it is difficult to ob-tain a smooth backstroke, follow through and distance control. Too heavy and it is very difficult to get any kind of distance control, especially on longer putts. Heavy putters are, how-ever, very accurate on shorter length putts where distance control is easier to start with. A good swingweight range is between C-8 and D-8. If the put-ter is heavier than this is more OK than if it is lighter. The problem with a number of putters currently in play is that they were built with the old lighter head weights and many fall into the A-1 to C-6 range. FIG. 8-2

How Improper Putter Lie Angle Affects Directional Control

TOE IS UP(4° FLAT) 66° LIE

LEADING EDGE ONLY IS SQUARE TO TARGET LOFT PLANE IS TILTED 1/4° LEFT OF TARGET 33' PUTT, BALL PULLED 1.73" LEFT

TARG

ET

Ladies, if your putter was cut down to fit you and it is an older model; you may have a problem. A putter that is too light is definitely a problem that most men and women golfers do not need. If you fall into this category, check the swingweight on your putter. If necessary, simply put lead tape on the sole of the putter making sure to evenly cover the entire sole in layers until the correct weight is achieved. I like putting the tape on the sole be-cause it is not visible in the putting position. A 5" long piece of ½" wide lead tape equals 1 swingweight. Lead tape is available from The GolfWorks and most stores selling golf equipment. Every golfer should have at least a small roll of lead tape for weight experimenting. The pros all do it. 5. Proper Putter Head Design This fitting variable splits itself in im-portance between distance control and directional control of the putt. Today we have the newer larger putter head shapes that claim high moments of in-ertia (MOI); but there are still many of the traditional putter shapes from which to choose. Putter shafts can be straight, single bend or double bend. The putter heads can be center shafted or end shafted. Much of this is personal choice regarding looks, feel and above all feeling comfortable with your choice. Try not to pay too much atten-tion to the long standing putter myths which are still very much perpetuated

even today. These include terms like “ a face balanced putter keeps the face square at impact”, “the center of grav-ity of the head is in line with the cen-terline of the shaft to resist rotation”, “use a light putter for fast greens”, “use a heavier putter for slow greens”, “this type player needs a blade putter”, “this type player needs a mallet put-ter”, “this type stroke is best with end shafted putters”, “this type stroke is best with center shafted putters” and on and on. Don’t listen to this stuff as it has no scientific basis whatsoever. An important performance variable in the putter head design to consider when buying a putter is whether or not you want the easier playability of a high moment of inertia (MOI) putter head design. High MOI putters are far more forgiving on off-center impacts. Here’s why: MOI is simply the meas-urement of a putter head’s resistance

MOMENT OF INERTIA

FIG. 8-3

Measuring Putter Head M.O.I.


61

to rotation on off center hits. See Fig-ure 8-3. The higher the MOI, the less the rotation and the lower the MOI the easier the clubhead rotates. We do not hit every putt on the putter head’s exact horizontal center of gravity, so we almost always incur some putter head rotation (poorer directional con-trol). We also reduce the energy ap-plied to the ball on off center hits (poorer distance control) because of two variables; first, the twisting head reduces energy transfer from the put-ter face to the ball; and secondly, the impact location was not exactly on the putter head’s center of gravity which also reduces energy transfer. Keep in mind this important fact: The longer the putt’s length and the poorer the golfer, the larger the ball impact area on the putter’s face. So, to correct this and make the impact area smaller and get consistently closer to the putters horizontal center of gravity, we can practice, we can use impact decals to track our progress and we can con-sider a high or higher MOI putter head design. Go to ralphmaltby.com for a listing of MOI’s for over 150 putter heads. If you would like to try a test of your own to see where you strike your putts, do this: Obtain some putter im-pact decals from the GolfWorks or buy a roll of Labelon tape. This tape can usually be found at office supply stores. Labelon tape is specially lami-

nated and when anything touches it, a visible permanent impression is recorded. Use the special putter face impact decal or cut a piece of tape ap-proximately 3" long and stick it to the putter face. Mark the center of the put-ter face on the decal or tape or mark it where the putter line up mark is lo-cated on the putter head. Next, putt 5 or 6 balls at a target twenty feet away. Notice that each putt leaves a multiple ball dimple imprint on the tape. Take a fine tip Sharpie pen and mark the cen-ter of each impact after every hit. Fi-nally, with a ruler, measure the total width range of the Sharpie pen marks (impacts) and also the vertical height range. Try this at different distances and you will learn quite a bit about the consistency of your putting stroke. Note particularly if your impact loca-tions favor more toward the toe or heel area of the putter. This can be a bigger problem and you may want to visit a PGA professional for advice or help. If you really want to get into under-standing all the performance variables in putters, their playability differ-ences, in-depth fitting of putters and actually seeing the high speed photog-raphy of the putter head and ball at im-pact; then you want to watch my 2 hour DVD, Dynamic Putter Fitting. I believe that anyone watching and ap-plying this video to their own situation will improve their putting. I also have a 20 minute less technical version DVD


putter using the variables described here titled, The Golfers Guide to Dy-namic Putter Fitting. Too many golfers know too little about their equipment and they accept the playability of their current golf clubs not fully realizing how proper selection and fitting of golf clubs can help them play better. How to Putt Better The first thing to discuss in better understanding how to putt better is to explain a few facts about what happens when a ball is putted. As we already pointed out, regardless of distance, the ball will initially skid and then skid-roll on the grass for approxi-mately 14% to 20% of the total putt distance. The ball will then begin to roll with pure over spin the remaining 80% to 86% of the total putt distance. Refer to Figure 8-1. The duration of impact (ball on club face) is less than 4/10,000 of a second. This, of course, varies depending on putter construction type and the mate-rial used on the face. The direction the putted ball will travel is dictated mostly by two vari-ables:

1. The path of the putter head at impact

2. The face angle of the putter head at impact. See Figure 8-4

Both of these variables are important

in determining the initial ball direction but the face angle influences direction approximately four times more than the path. There are as many ways to putt as ... well, you know. Here is something that has proven successful with a number of golfers. This isn’t a substitute for taking a putting lesson from your golf professional; but if your putting hasn’t been great lately, it just may be that you need to get back to basics. Here we go: Set up your address with your feet and shoulders square to the target. Your feet should be shoulder width apart or slightly less. Put an equal amount of weight on each foot (50-50 balance) and bend your knees just a little to relax your legs. Line the ball up even with your inside left heel. Hold the putter this way: Bend over slightly at the waist until your eyes are very close to directly over the ball (your eyes will actually be to the right of the ball but still over the ball on the target line). See Figure 8-5. Let your

FIG. 8-4

Face Angle And Path Of Putter Head At Impact

PATH

FACE ANGLE

63

arms hang naturally at your side with your elbows and upper arms both lightly touching your clothing. Next, grip the putter in this manner: Use either the overlap grip or reverse overlap, preferably the latter and be sure to do three things;

1. Both hands must be neutral so they will not unduly influence the putter’s face angle during the stroke. Neutral means that if you grip the putter and then simply open up each hand so that the back of the left hand and the front of the right hand are in the perfect clapping position or perfectly square to the target. This makes both hands parallel and neutral. If the hands are not square (neutral) to the target, they have a tendency to roll the putter

face either open or closed during the stroke. This is a big reason why we miss short simple putts.

2. Hold the putter like it is a breakable egg. Soft hands on the putter allows for a fluid repeat-able stroke. No one putts well with a death grip stroke while all the time saying, “Please let it get close” or “Please let it go in!”

3. Finally, use a slower and shorter backstroke, taking the putter naturally back and through. The slow, shorter backstroke forces you to accelerate the putter through the ball vs. a deceleratingstroke. Accelerating strokes are much better at controlling the distance of the putt and maintain-ing accuracy.

Here is a fun exercise as a follow up to the above discussion. It will tell you the length of putter that fits you if you use my putting method. We just talked about gripping the putter. We need to add in the proper ball position meas-ured out from your left foot (right hand golfers, lefties use the right foot). Place the putter head on the ground off your left inside heel with the heel portion of the putter 2" to 3" out from the toe of your shoe. Now position the ball in the middle of the putter face or on its line up mark. You should now be standing over the putt in the proper posture position and holding the putter. If you placed your hands on the putter where

FIG. 8-5

Golfer’s Eyes Should Be Directly Over The Golf Ball On The Target Line

you are now probably choking down on the grip. My guess would be any-where from 1" to 2" down. Your correct putter length would be at a point ½ above your left hand little finger. Re-member, the lie angle may still need to be determined and the other putter fit-ting variables, but you get the point.

If you are not happy with your putting give this method I just outlined a try or use certain parts of it. It may improve your putting. Also, be sure to actually try out any putter you are thinking about purchasing. Fitting putters is easy and it is impor-tant. Your golf club fitting professional will gladly help you check out and possibly alter your present putter to make it fit properly or assist you in the proper fit of a new putter. NOTES:


Section Ten HOW AND WHY WEDGES WORK

The total playability of any wedge is a combination of factors. The most im-portant factors are built into the head itself. The design of the wedge’s sole in particular is a critical factor in how the wedge will play. The proper weight range of the head for a given club length has importance, as does the loft given the wedge’s specific purpose. Finally, the proper number of wedges, their specifications and their specific playability characteristics matched up and correctly fitted to the golfers wants and needs also have great importance. The wedge can be a miracle club that reduces strokes; the problem is that some golfers are playing with wedges that will never give them consistent performance. Here is a new way to look at wedges and their characteris-tics by simply learning what makes them work so they will work better for you. Since most all wedge shots re-quire that the sole of the club contact either turf or sand to work properly, and it has already been mentioned that the sole design is a key factor regard-ing wedge playability; then this will be the main area for our discussion. The Basic 4 Factors of Sole Design That Determine “Effective Bounce” The bounce angle built into the sole of any wedge is not the single determining factor on how the club’s sole will

interact with the ground during the swing. Unfortunately, most golfers think that if one sand wedge has 10 degrees bounce and another one has 13 degrees bounce that the 13 degree wedge will automatically perform as if it had greater bounce. This may or may not be true. The reason for this is that a number of factors make up the real or “Effective Bounce” that ultimately de-termines the actual performance of the sole as it goes through or glides on sand or turf. This applies to full and partial shot making with any wedge. There are basically four factors that determine “Effective Bounce”. They are:

• The actual sole bounce angle (See Figure 10-1)

• The width of the sole (See Figure 10-2)

• The sole radius front to back

• The leading edge grind

FIG. 10-1

GROUND LINE

SOLE LINE

BOUNCE ANGLE

Definition Of Bounce Angle

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THE LEADING EDGE IS HIGHER THAN THE TRAILING EDGE OF THE SOLE

Choosing the Best Wedges for You Now that a basic understanding of the soles “Effective Bounce” has been discussed it is necessary to further discuss how to determine what wedge works best for a given golfer. The bulk of all wedges manufactured today are the so-called conventional wedge designs. I refer to these as the copies of copies of copies. Most are also very good wedges but the vast majority of them have very similar playing characteristics. Almost every golf club manufacturer has a series of this type wedge in their line. This is the most common wedge design and is used by most golfers including the finest players in the world. These wedges are characterized by conventional sole widths, sole radiuses, sole bounce angles and leading edge grinds. These wedge types can mostly be categorized as general purpose wedges (although

some special purpose wedges exist in this category) for a wide range of shot making. As I said, most of these wedges are excellent designs as long as they are used properly by players with adequate skills that can execute consistent shots with them and who can also take advantage of the many varied shots that they are capable of performing. The next category of wedges is the wider, flatter radius sole wedges. They may or may not be excessively wide; but are wider than the conventional wedge category. They range up to the special purpose wedges characterized by extremely wide, flatter radius soles with reduced bounce angles but with very high “effective bounce”. See Figure 10-2. All the wider sole wedges are usually designed to help the so-called average golfer become more


FIG. 10-2

Range Of Wedge Sole Widths

CONVENTIONAL WIDER VERY WIDE EXTREMELY WIDE

.750 1.25" 1.62" 2"

NOTE: SOLE BOUNCE ANGLES NOT ILLUSTRATED FOR CLARITY

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consistent and successful with their wedge play. These wedges are not de-signed to hit the flop shot with the face rolled open 15º or taking a full swing at the ball. The very wide soles are played mostly with the face square to only slightly open. The wider and very wide soles can be rolled opened a little more for special shots but not nearly as open as the conventional width sole wedges which can play the most specialty shots but require the highest skill level. A few rules of thumb need to be dis-cussed to further help in understand-ing wedge playability. First are the effective sole width and the sole radius. These two features determine how quickly the club face leading edge raises off the ground when the club face is rolled open to increase the loft. The wider the effective sole width and the flatter the sole radius; the quicker the leading edge will raise up when the club face is rolled open to increase the loft. Conversely, the narrower the ef-fective sole width and the more rounded the sole radius will cause the leading edge to raise less when the club face is rolled open to increase the loft. This is an important feature to look at regarding the intended use of the wedge and the conditions it is used under. The wider, flatter sole wedges in the square hit position or face rolled open only slightly will work well from looser sand and plusher pitching and

chipping conditions and will be very easy to use successfully more of the time (higher playability factor). The conventional sole with a more rounded sole radius will work from harder or packed sand conditions and tighter lies. The leading edge will stay down closer to the ground even if the leading edge is raised by rolling the face open to increase the loft. However, the lower the leading edge is to the ground; the greater the chance of hitting the wedge fat. This type wedge would be less consistent and harder to use for the average golfer, but would work well for the golfer with a higher skill level. The bounce angle designed into the sole is also a factor in determining the leading edge height. With all else equal, the greater the bounce angle, the higher the leading edge. Another factor is the club face leading edge radius. It does not affect leading edge height; but it does affect the tendency of the leading edge to dig more or dig less. The more rounded the leading edge, the less it wants to dig. The sharper the leading edge radius, the more it has a tendency to dig. Here is another good rule of thumb to use: If a golfer has special problems consistently getting out of the sand and/or has the problem of hitting fat and thin shots when pitching and chip-ping or in general is just inconsistent; select a very wide or extremely wide

available in a sand wedge loft and sometimes also in a 60º lob wedge model. This type wedge will probably have no more than 4º or 5º of bounce because of the very wide or extremely wide sole width. The proper use of a wedge like this is to play it with the face square to the intended target. Re-member, if it is rolled open, the leading edge will raise too high off the ground. This type wedge works by eliminating the fat or chunky shot by mostly elimi-nating any tendency for the leading edge to dig. So, with one type of bad shot eliminated, all the golfer has to worry about is the thin shot. To play this wedge the golfer can hit slightly behind the ball (up to ¾" and some-times 1") to put in a “cushion” for bet-ter avoiding the thin shot and the ball will easily become airborne with each and every attempt. The chance for in-consistent sand shots, chips and pitches is mostly eliminated because this wedge simply can not be hit fat. This would be referred to as a specific or special purpose sand wedge because the very wide sole restricts its ability to be manipulated (face rolled open) for the many varied shots (flop shots as an example) that would be required of a very good player such as a touring professional. Final Words The myriad of wedges on the market and all their claims makes it a difficult choice to get the best wedges for your

game. We have discussed the most important aspects of wedge playability and you may be wondering why there has been no discussion of wedge materials and methods of manufac-ture. The reason is that it makes no difference in the playability of any wedge. Every few months a new wedge material comes out that is supposedly softer and it very well could be. The point to make here is that the softness of the wedge head material makes no difference in playability. Also, whether the head is forged or cast makes no difference in playability. To sell wedges manufacturers sell softness be-cause that is what golfers want to hear. Golfers and manufacturers keep perpetuating the myth and it simply does not go away. Use the information discussed here about wedges to help make an informed decision or at least to ask better questions. The more knowledge that golfers have about equipment; the better the chances of playing better and enjoying the game more.

NOTES:


Section Eleven

A DISCUSSION OF THE FIVE TYPES OF WEDGES (Any Wedge You Use or Buy Needs to Fit Into Your Set Properly) The wedge category basically consists of 5 types which are the pitching wedges, gap wedges, sand wedges, 60º lob wedges and the very high loft lob wedges. The discussion below will be centered around some wedge facts, descriptions and also my opinions on which wedges to carry and the specifi-cations you should be aware of to help select the best playing wedges for you. Pitching Wedges Pitching wedges are usually included in the set of irons and this should be the pitching wedge that you play if you like your irons. This wedge is usually designed as a logical extension of the 9 iron in shape and incremental per-formance. The two variables that usu-ally differ from the irons in the set are 1º to 4º more bounce angle added to the sole and a 2 to 3 swingweight increase. Club lengths vary, but the pitching wedge should be ½" shorter than the #9 iron. A number of manufacturers make it ¼" shorter than the 9 iron. Gap Wedges The golf industry backed themselves into a corner by reducing the lofts of irons over the years and has as such created a new category of wedges

called gap wedges. The gap wedge exists because pitching wedge lofts today are usually around 46º or 47º and sometimes even stronger. Sand wedges usually average around 55º or 56º so a gap of about 9º or 10º or more exists be-tween them. Usually the lofts in a set of irons are 3º or 4º between each iron. To sell more clubs and satisfy the needs of some golfers; the manufacturers in-vented the gap wedge which is around 50º to 52º in loft. Gap wedges in my opinion are mostly not necessary unless your set makeup starts with a #5 iron. The reason for this is that the U.S.G.A. only allows 14 clubs during play. There are a number of other choices for additional clubs that could possibly benefit the golfer much more such as a hybrid club, 60º wedge, 7 and/or 9 fairway metal and so on. If you start with a 5 iron in your set then there can be room for the gap wedge if you desire. If you do not play with a gap wedge, the distance differ-ence between your pitching wedge and sand wedge can be compensated for by learning to hit ¾ pitching wedge shots which are not difficult to master. Gap wedges should be ½" shorter than the pitching wedge and also be 2 to 3 swingweights heavier than your irons. Again, note that a number of manufac-turers make the gap wedge only ¼" shorter than the pitching wedge.

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Sand Wedges Sand wedges should have no less than 55º loft. Lofts lower than this defeat the purpose of what sand wedges are de-signed to do. I always prefer a sand wedge to have at least 56º. The maxi-mum loft should be 58º on a specific purpose sand wedge. I would not rec-ommend carrying just a 60º sand wedge unless you are very good. There is simply too much loft on a 60º sand wedge to be the only sand wedge you carry. However, there is nothing wrong with having both a 56º and a 60º sand wedge to cover more situations. I would, however, recommend that the 56º sand wedge have 10º to 14º bounce if it is a normal width sole design and that the 60º wedge have 6º to 8º bounce in a normal width sole design. Note that most 60º wedges designed today are not specifically designed as, nor are they called sand wedges. A few have bounce angles as high as 14º which would classify them as sand wedges and that is why they are men-tioned here in the sand wedge discus-sion. Always be sure to check the bounce angle on conventional normal sole width design 60º wedges to be cer-tain you are getting the specific type of lob wedge you want. In other words do you want a multi-purpose 60º lob wedge or a 60º lob wedge for the sand? Sand wedges need to be a little heavier than the pitching wedge to work the best for most players. They should be

4 to 6 swingweights heavier than the swingweight of your irons and should be ½" shorter in length than the pitch-ing wedge (the same length as a gap wedge if you carry one). Some manu-facturers make the pitching wedge and the sand wedge the same length. Also, again, some manufacturers use ¼" dif-ference in length between the pitching wedge and the sand wedge. Lob or 60º Wedges 60º wedges can be miracle clubs for some players and cause way too many problems for others. The 60º wedge re-quires a higher skill level and a good amount of practice time to master properly. These wedges differ dramati-cally in design specifications so it is important to pick one with specifica-tions for your intended use. The main differences are in the sole design. Bounce angles can go as high as 14º (really a 60º sand wedge), but more realistically are in the 6º to 8º range. The lower bounce angles will still work well from sand but require more skill than a normal sand wedge. The 60º wedge is a good chipping and pitching wedge for specialty shots including the flop shot and will usually have a nor-mal sole width so the club face can be rolled open to increase the loft and the Effective Bounce. 60º wedges can be the same length as the sand wedge or ½" or ¼" shorter. I prefer ½" shorter be-cause distance is not what the golfer should be looking for. Control and

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finesse are more important. The swing-weight should be similar to the sand wedge which is 4 to 6 swingweights heavier than the irons in the set. There are very wide sole 60º wedges available for eliminating the fat shot such as the GolfWorks 60º Lob Slider wedge and there are also a number of sole widths between this and the con-ventional width sole that are also very easy to play. Reference back to Figure 10-2. Some specifications are different from normal width sole wedges in that the bounce angle is reduced to around 4º for very wide soles to around 6º to 8º for the wide sole categories. The rea-son for this is simply the sole width. The “effective bounce”, however, on wider sole width wedges is about 20% to 40% greater than a normal sole width wedge. With this type wedge the face of the club needs to remain rela-tively square with the target vs. rolling it open so the leading edge does not raise up too high which can cause problems. The very wide sole wedge design will definitely not be used to hit the flop shot. Most golfers do not posses the skill level for such a difficult shot anyway. The very wide sole and wide sole wedges are a great tradeoff in both sand wedges and 60º wedges to make wedge play extremely easy and almost automatic for those golfers that need or want it. Keep in mind that sole widths on wedges can range anywhere from a normal or conventional width

of ¾" to wider sole wedges with 1¼" or 1 5/8" width soles up to very wide sole widths of 2". So, there are a number of options available to the golfer regard-less of skill level or for golfers that pre-fer a wider sole wedge to help eliminate the fat shot and be more con-sistent with their wedge play. High Loft Lob Wedges The high loft lob wedges, in my opin-ion should not be used by most golfers. These wedges have 64º to 65º loft and are very difficult to master for all but the very accomplished player. There is nothing a high loft lob wedge can do that a 60º wedge can not do. Why carry a wedge that is harder to play if it does nothing else for you? If you doubt me and you carry a high loft lob wedge, keep track of all the times it has pulled off the shot and all the times it has let you down. My guess is that it hurts more than it helps for most golfers. How to Fit Your Wedges to Your Set Here is a great tip for you to see if your current wedges actually fit into your iron set. First locate a table that has a straight edge. Next, take your entire iron set (probably 3 or 4 iron through pitching wedge) and lay them down on the table in numerical order. Allow the heads to hang over the side of the table and carefully align either the hosels or the hosel ferrules exactly to the straight edge of the table. Space each club close together but

without touching each other. Note that all these irons must be part of a set meaning the same model from the same manufacturer. Now, take all your wedges and continue laying them, in order, next to the pitching wedge. If your wedges are not the same model and manufacturer as your irons, which most are not, you will need to use a straight edge, such as a ruler, and carefully align the wedge soles with all of the other iron soles. See Figure 11-1 Don’t worry if the hosels or ferrules do not line up as this is normally the case. Just make sure the soles are perfectly aligned with the straight edge for all your irons. Next, look at the grip end of the clubs. This is showing you the exact differences in length between each club in your set including the wedges. You are looking to see that there is a ½" difference in each club’s length from your longest iron to the pitching wedge. Next measure the wedge length differences at the grip end. You need a minimum of ¼"

difference in length for each wedge. I prefer ½" but most manufacturers have switched to ¼". Why? Because you will hit the ball farther and think the wedge maker was very talented to figure out how to do this. Listen up: wedges are scoring clubs where accuracy is far more important than hitting them longer distances. It’s all up to you; hit your wedges for longer distances or use them with specifica-tions that help you play the best. Let’s look at three actual scenarios in Figures 11-2, 11-3 and 11-4 to best under-stand how a wedge club length should fit into your set. In all three Figures 11-2, 11-3 and 11-4, the 4 iron through pitching wedge have a perfect 1/2" increment length change. This is excellent, but you should always check your set because some manufacturer’s have been known to adjust club lengths during assembly to maintain matching swingweights. FIG. 11-1

FIG. 11-2


Set Lengths

PW SW 60° (SAME)

They do this because their headweights are out of specification and they feel this is better than “tip slugging” the hosels to add weight to the head. Actu-ally, both these methods are wrong and the only correct way to make a match-ing set is to get the headweights correct in the first place to maintain the same swingweight for each 1/2" increment in club length. In Figure 11-2 the pitching wedge, sand wedge and 60° wedge are all the same length. This is not good as it defeats half the purpose of having each wedge in your bag (incremental distance). Some manufacturers actually do this. In Fig. 11-3 the sand wedge is 1/4" shorter than the pitching wedge and the 60° wedge is 1/4" shorter than the sand wedge. This is how many of the manufacturers set their wedge lengths. In Figure 11-4 all clubs in the set are in perfect 1/2" length increments. This is my preferred method to be most

consistant and play your best. With this length method, you may need a strip or two of lead tape on your sand or lob wedge to be in the correct swingweight range. If you picked up a wedge here and there like most golfers and added them to your set, you are probably now won-dering why some of them are the same length, shorter or longer than they should be. The manufacturers have no standard when it comes to wedge speci-fications. They vary all over the place meaning we need to always check out any new wedge addition. If required, this is a good time to have your wedge lengths altered to fit properly into your set. So what if they need a little lead tape added to get to the proper swing-weight, your wedges will now look like most tour players wedges. Note: a ½" wide strip of lead tape 5" long equals 1 swingweight. This is also the best time to make sure the wedges have the exact same grip and grip size as the

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FIG. 11-3 FIG. 11-4

Set Lengths Set Lengths

PW SW 60° (1/4" DIFFERENCE)

PW SW 60° (1/2" DIFFERENCE)

other clubs in your set. This is really important to do and I find sets of irons all the time with the wedges com-pletely out of whack (lengths, swing-weight and grips) with the other clubs in the set. Final Words Wedges can make or break a golfer’s game. This is an area where a little study in understanding wedges can re-ally pay off. Go out and try different wedges and see what works best for you. Keep track of which wedge you hit the best and which one lets you down the most. Make sure your wedges fit properly into your set of irons. Don’t be afraid to try the new wider sole sand and lob wedges be-cause they can be eye openers as to how easy a wedge can play and help the golfer get more consistent results.

NOTES


Section Twelve THE WEDGE SCORE CARD Here is a great way to evaluate your wedge play. The Wedge Score Card can be filled out after a round of golf so it never gets in the way on the course. It provides almost instant analysis of your strengths and weaknesses and also gives valuable insight into what percentage of your game is made up of wedge shots. You can pick up a card or two free at your local Golf Galaxy store (ask for the PGA golf professional or manager on duty) or you can copy the one in this book. Better yet, go to ralphmaltby.com and download a few in full size. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR THE WEDGE SCORE CARD (Shown on the Next Page) Evaluating Our Wedge Play To evaluate our wedge play we need infor-mation. The Wedge Score Card provides this information. There are many ways to use the Wedge Score Card and here are some sug-gestions. • Your wedge score on the front of this card

evaluates your overall wedge play in a general manner. This makes it easy to determine if there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

• Look carefully at each of the four cate-gories of wedge play, full shots, pitching, chipping and sand shots. Determine if your problem is specific to one or two categories.

• You may want to eliminate the category

for the full wedge shots and only use the categories of pitching, chipping and sand shots to more specifically evaluate your around-the-green play. Or, simply keep track of all your wedge shots but calculate a separate score for these three categories.

• Most golfers keep track of their putts per round. Add your putt total to your wedge total and divide this number by your 18 hole score. I recently shot an 82 with 19 wedge shots and 32 putts.

• This meant that I had 51 shots out of 82 or 62% of all my shots were either putts or wedge shots. Do you practice your putts and wedges 62% of the time?

• I like to fill out the Wedge Score Card after the round or when I get home. I play each hole over in my head and simply mark it down.

Evaluating The Example Wedge Score Card This is an actual round of golf I played. My self goal is to always be well below 25% unsatisfactory shots with my total wedge play. Of course I would like it much lower and in single digits but reality forces me to do otherwise. My calcuated Wedge Score of 42% is not good for me. I hit 4 poor full pitching wedge shots. This data helped me recount that I hit all of them right or right short of the green. I hit 7 full pitching wedge shots during the round which is 37% of the total wedge shots hit. I hit 2 fat wedges, a lob wedge pitching on #9 and a sand wedge chipping on #13. If I do anything,it will be to hit a wedge fat around the greens. I hit 6 chips out of 19 total wedge shots which is 31% chipping. 5 of my 6 chips were satisfactory or 83%.

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I think you start to get the idea. You only need to look in the areas where you have or may have problems. It’s much easier to solve problems if you can pinpoint them exactly. Pitch And Chip Definitions The “over 10 yards” for pitching and “under 10 yards” for chipping is measured to the hole and is a suggestion only. You may also use your own definition. Summary • There are a number of things you can

do to improve your wedge play. • Spend more time practicing your

short game.

• Get a specific or general lesson from a PGA golf professional

• See an experienced club fitter who can recommend wedge changes and or wedge additions and who can also fit wedges properly to you.

• Watch my 1hour DVD entitled “Learn All About Wedges”. This knowledge can help any golfer select the best wedge designs and set make-up for their skill levels.


NOTES

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NOTES

Fill out a “Wedge Score Card” after every round. This is a sure way to honestly evaluate your wedge play. Why guess, when you can use actual statistics from

every round to improve your short game.



Section Thirteen WHAT WOMEN NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GOLF CLUBS TO PLAY BETTER

Women need special considerations in club design to play their best. The information presented here applies to 98% of all women golfers. It is not intended for women touring profes-sionals (LPGA) or women with single digit handicaps. Women players of this caliber have basically the same requirements as male players. The absolute worst thing that we have done to the average women golfer is to disguise a set of clubs designed for men with different paint colors, graphics, medallions, a different shaft, a smaller grip and call them ladies models. Also, keep in mind that not every manufacturer who makes ladies only golf clubs thoroughly under-stands what women really need. They simply design a set of clubs specifically for women with the intention to im-prove sales. So, let’s take a look at women’s golf clubs and explain each of the golf club design factors that need to be taken into consideration when buying golf clubs. Women Are Different From Men In the mid 1990’s I became very interested in women’s golf clubs. This all came about because my wife knew that I was working on a new ladies club for the GolfWorks called the Logic Lady (today it is called the LTECH).

Being an avid golfer, she felt that women needed additional design considerations simply because many of her golfing friends had trouble hit-ting irons in particular and specifi-cally in getting the ball airborne. There was also a lack of consistency in hitting acceptable shots. I could as-sociate with these statements, but all I could come up with at the time was what I always thought; and that was to make sure irons designed for women had a low center of gravity. This was my basic goal all along. Well, as the conversation continued, she said something that I had never heard before, never thought about and certainly never consciously observed during play. She said that women do not take divots. Sure, some of the better playing women golfers take a divot, but the vast majority of women golfers do not take divots. Most women golfers are simply not strong enough and consequently they mostly swing in a sweeping arc into the ball vs. a down and through arc. So, while designing this new iron, two very important things were about to come together. First, my wife’s state-ment about women not taking divots and secondly, the fact that I was well into proving out the Maltby Playability Factor (MPF) for irons (see page 100) This made me realize that it would be

important to get a cross section of women golfers together to do some testing. I wanted to find additional information and to also confirm what women think concerning hitting a golf ball and simply playing the game. One of the new pieces of data to promi-nently emerge was that many women felt that golf was too difficult a game to play. I assumed from this statement that most felt they did not have equip-ment that was easy to hit. Wrong! None of them blamed their equipment (at least in this group). They basically did not have any prevalent reason. A number of women simply restated that they felt it was difficult to learn how to hit a golf ball the way they wanted. Regarding equipment, many women golfers planned on playing the clubs they had and were not even consider-ing a new set, other than possibly the addition of a chipper or other utility club. This obviously pointed out that somehow, someway, women needed to know that there is equipment out there that can help them. It pointed out to me that every aspect of golf club design needed to be looked at to make hitting the ball easier and the game less difficult for women. The Iron Head Design Solution For Women Basically, the ideal iron head designs (some of these design characteristics apply to metal wood heads and hybrids also) for most women golfers have

seven very important characteristics. The first is an extremely low center of gravity. Not just the ordinary low cen-ter of gravity, but a really low center of gravity. Actually, it needs to be below .700" (the balls center of gravity is at .840"). The second characteristic is a bigger “C” Dimension (horizontal center of gravity moved farther away from the hosel) of no less than 1.500". Third, a more rearward positioned center of gravity than most irons would normally have. The minimum recommended is .600". Fourth, a much wider sole from the face to the back of the iron and fifth at least 4° of bounce angle on the sole (trailing edge is lower than the leading edge). Sixth, more loft from what is typically found on most men’s irons. For women, 28° loft is a good minimum and 30° is still not too much on a 5 iron (men are 25º to 27º loft on most 5 irons). Seventh, a woman’s iron head needs to be heavier than men’s iron heads because the golf club length for women is shorter than men’s. A woman will not feel the heavier head weight because of the shorter overall club length, but the weight is necessary to hit the ball solidly. Basically, throughout history, women’s head weights have always been heavier than men’s head weights, so this is nothing new and this is correct. It is simply not talked about because women like to think that they need lighter golf clubs. Many women also feel that a club is going to be

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heavier when it has a bigger head than another model or the club they are playing. This is not true because any size head can be made to any weight. The Driver Head Design Solution for Women Women need to be playing a 450 c.c. to 460 c.c. driver head size. The new big-ger driver head designs with the higher moments of inertia (MOI) and higher coefficients of restitution (COR or CT) are easier to hit and will increase dis-tance, sometimes dramatically. Here is what to look for in a ladies model driver head: First, most women need more loft to more easily get the ball air-borne. Usually a driver loft of 12º to 15º will accomplish this. If you can, always get tested on a launch monitor when hitting indoors or have someone watch you hit demo drivers on an outside range. Your goal is to get the ball well up into the air to maximize distance (both carry and roll). Lower flying shots are a thing of the past. The new golf balls that fly higher with less spin need a good initial trajectory for maxi-mum distance. Tip: You will usually be using the new longer tees when hitting the driver. They come in three sizes, 2½", 2¾" and 3" long. You need to hit the ball above the vertical face center on the bigger headed drivers, so pick the tee height that helps you do this with your swing and setup. The 3" tee is sometimes hard to find in the “free take one” bin at many golf courses but they

are readily available in all the golf spe-cialty stores. If you slice the ball, be sure and demo a ladies driver that has a hooked face. This will usually be about 1º hooked. This can make a big difference in get-ting the ball started on the target line, especially so for someone that has a tendency to push or fade the ball. An-other driver head design to consider is an offset hosel. This means the shaft or hosel is moved more in front of the face. This type head design on a driver helps to square the clubhead quicker coming into impact and also helps to keep the hands more vertically inline with the shaft and not behind it com-ing into impact. This can also help women golfers who are generally in-consistent in directional control and trajectory. Demo one and see if it works for you. Fairway Metals and Hybrids For Women Most of what we said for irons applies here also, but there are some other important considerations. The main consideration is where these clubs fit into your set make up. You are basi-cally trying to eliminate any large distance gaps and get these gaps as even as possible. There is a nifty chart on page 112 of this book that helps you record and then plot out the distances you hit each club. From this you can determine the distance gaps you need

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to fill in with either fairway metals and/or hybrids. If you are going to add in a hybrid, do not buy the one that looks like an iron, buy the one that looks more like a skinny fairway metal. These type hybrids are usually easier to hit for women and they more closely fit into the metal wood category than the iron category. One of the keys to this discussion is where your iron set starts. In other words, does it start with a 4 iron, 5 iron or 6 iron. For women, I much prefer that iron sets start with a 5 iron as the longest iron or possibly a 6 iron depending on how well you can hit them. This will then allow you to fit in a hybrid or two and some fairway metals. Club Length And Shaft Flexibility For Women’s Clubs There are two very important consid-erations for women concerning the overall golf club. First, most women’s clubs are simply too long. A woman’s 5 iron should be no longer than 37" unless special lengths are needed for taller women golfers of better playing ability. While we are discussing length, the driver should be no longer than 43" (today, some manufacturers are building stock ladies driver lengths at 44", 44½" and even 45"). Secondly, most women’s shaft flexes are much too stiff for them and the bend points are too high (shaft tip section is too stiff). Many of the shafts that I measure are actually in the “A” flex category

(shaft flexes in ascending order of stiff-ness are LL, L, A, R, S and X) and not even in the standard “L” (Ladies) flex category. The actual flex that works best for most women is an “LL” flex or a flex that is actually more flexible than the so-called standard “L” flex. The “LL” flex shaft should also have a low shaft bend point. This means that most of the bending in the shaft favors the lower portion of the shaft (also called tip flexible). Women’s Grip Sizes I did a project in a large golf specialty retail store recently (2006) which was quite interesting. I decided to take every ladies club in the store and measure the grip size. The result was that the sizes ranged from men’s stan-dard size all the way down to ladies un-dersize. The average grip size was larger than ladies standard size so ba-sically all this research pointed out was that women need to be properly fit to grip size whenever they buy any golf club. Also, do not assume that the irons and the metal woods from the same manufacturer have the same grip size in the set. I found a number of cases where they were different sizes. Here is the bottom line to help women golfers: First, always have grip size fit-ted to you. Remember, you have some latitude to impose your personal pref-erence in grip sizing. In other words, if you feel more comfortable with


larger than what you fit into, this is usu-ally okay. Just keep in mind the word “slightly”. Second, be sure every club in your set is the same brand and style of grip and the same size. Of course, this does not apply to the putter grip. The Hitting Results Women Can Expect First, let’s start with irons. Here is what happens when the overall design considerations already discussed are applied to irons. Since women do not take divots and are basically sweepers of the ball, the wider sole coupled with the increased bounce angle, will not allow the clubhead to dig into the ground and create fat shots. The sole simply glides on top of the turf, so the fear of sticking the clubhead into the ground and hitting a “fat” shot is eliminated. In other words, one bad variable is gone. Once again, since most women sweep the ball, the extremely low center of gravity (also applies to fairway metals and hybrids) allows the clubhead to slide into the ball and always have its center of gravity well below that of the golf ball’s center of gravity. For proper trajectory and a solid hit to happen, the clubhead’s center of gravity must always be lower than the golf ball’s center of gravity at impact. This is easy for most men who hit down and through the ball and take divots because they are driving the center

of gravity of the clubhead downward (not sweeping it horizontally) and impacting the ball well below its center of gravity. Bottom line so far: An extremely low center of gravity in women’s irons, makes it easy to get every shot airborne without the fear of hitting the shot fat because of the wider bounce sole which resists digging. Every woman’s iron design should be in the Ultra Game Improvement Category regarding the Maltby Playability Factor (MPF). The ex-tremely low center of gravity coupled with the longer “C” Dimension (hori-zontal center of gravity located farther from the hosel centerline) and a more rearward center of gravity location assures the head design to be in the maximum playability category. This is the easiest to hit iron head design for women because it feels solid, gets the ball easily into the air and is very for-giving on off center hits. We have discussed the playability advantages with the new larger 450 c.c. to 460 c.c. driver heads. If you are not playing this technology, you are giving up too much. Tip: The best way to prove this to yourself is to take your current driver with you and demo a few of the latest ladies driver designs. This will allow you to compare the exact differences in performance and feel.

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Take these very forgiving and easy to hit golf club head designs and mate them with a more flexible (“LL”), low bend point shaft at an overall club length that is not too long and you have a great playing ladies golf club that makes the game of golf so much easier to play. This is the absolute fastest way to improve. You can al-ways determine the longest length driver or 5 iron you can handle by ob-serving your directional control. This is simply a tradeoff that every golfer must look at. The longer the club length, the longer the ball will go, but with less directional control. The shorter club length will hit the ball the straightest, but with the least amount of distance. This is a tradeoff that is important in scoring and must be de-termined for or by each golfer. Tip: The tour pros generally opt for the shorter length and more control. Rarely do they go much longer than standard length on their irons and driver. The “LL” flex shaft with a weaker tip bends more and allows both the clubhead’s loft to be dynamically increased and the clubhead’s face angle to dynamically close more com-ing into impact. This creates addi-tional help to more easily get the ball airborne and also helps to eliminate any tendency to hit the ball right or slice. Wedges for Women There are at least two wedges that

every woman needs to carry, a pitch-ing wedge and a sand wedge. It does not matter that there is no sand at your course; you still need a sand wedge. The pitching wedge is a logical exten-sion of your set of irons and provides one more short hitting accuracy club. It also fills an important distance gap. The sand wedge can be mastered with very little practice if you know how to pick out the easiest to hit models. The sand wedge is useful for other shots and not just sand shots. It is the pre-ferred “go to” club in many situations for chipping and pitching. Chipper type clubs and less lofted irons are fine for chipping the ball, but you simply cannot use them in all situations. You need to actually loft the ball in the air on a number of shots because it is easier to control the distance you hit it and you can also clear obstacles (bunkers, heavy rough, etc) and to also get the ball out of medium to heavy rough around the greens. Women should seriously look at the wider sole wedges on the market. The reason is similar to the discussion we had earlier on women’s iron design regarding the advantages of increased sole width and bounce. Wider sole wedges and in particular, the sand wedge, helps to eliminate any tendency to hit the ball fat. If you realize that it is very difficult to hit the ball fat, you can confidently go down after it, possibly even hitting a little behind

is eliminate the thin or skulled shot. The thin or skulled shot is the result of trying not to hit it fat (usually occurs right after a fat shot). So, by taking away one bad variable (the fat shot), and making it easier to always get the clubhead under the ball; you eliminate the thin shot. What I really like about this is the golfer’s confidence increases and she can concentrate on accuracy and distance control of the shot and not always worry about the two bad things that can happen. Putters for Women The biggest problem I see is putters that do not fit women golfers properly. The biggest culprit is putter length and in particular putters that are too long. Most all women that I fit will usually require anywhere from a 30" putter

length to a 32½" putter length. Women’s standard putter lengths found on putter racks are usually 33". The proper putter length controls both distance and accuracy of the putt and also promotes a smooth pendulum putting stroke. Another problem that women have more than men are their putters are sometimes too light in head weight. Women who are playing with some-what older putters (and some newer ones) that were once men’s models but were cut down for them should be very suspect. These were probably 35" put-ters to start with and let’s say that they have been cut down in length to 32" or 33". This could possibly make them too light to putt properly. Too light a put-ter makes it very difficult to control

C L


FIG. 13-1

How To Use Putter Face Impact Decals

DECAL APPLICATION PROCEDURE 1. ALIGN THE MIDDLE OF THE

DECAL WITH THE PUTTER’S BALL LINE-UP MARK. IF NO

MARK EXISTS, USE THE MIDDLE OF THE

PUTTER FACE. 2. ALIGN THE BOTTOM EDGE OF

THE DECAL PARALLEL TO THE SOLE RADIUS

PUTTING PROCEDURE WITH IMPACT DECALS 1. APPROXIMATE A 30 TO 35 FOOT PUTT. 2. PUTT 4 BALLS OR 5 BALLS MAXIMUM WITH EACH DECAL. 3. AFTER EACH PUTT, DRAW A DOT IN THE CENTER OF THE

IMPACT MARK USING A FINE POINT PERMANENT MARKER PEN.

4. MEASURE THE HORIZONTAL IMPACT LOCATION IN THE HEEL AND TOE DIRECTION RELATIVE TO THE DECAL CENTERLINE (PUTTER HEAD C.G.)

5. REPEAT ONE OR TWO MORE TIMES FOR ADDITIONAL ACCURACY. PUTTER LINE-UP MARK

or CENTER OF GRAVITY

5/8" WIDE IMPACT DISPERSION (3 OUT OF 4 ARE TOE HITS)

the distance a putt is hit. It also makes it more difficult to take the putter back on a consistent path which results in some directional control loss. To find out if your head weight is too light, simply put your putter on a swing-weight scale and take a reading. Ideal would be D-2 to D-4 swingweight. Anything below C-8 is getting too light. Heavier than recommended is always better than too light. I find women’s putter swingweights in the “B” and “C” swingweights all the time. Be sure to check the swingweight of your putter. If you cannot hit the ball on the putter face in the same small area every time (say a ½" circle) then you need one of the new higher moment of inertia (MOI) putters. Use an impact decal or some tape on the putter face (See Figure 13-1) and hit a few 30 foot putts. Put a Sharpie® pen mark in the middle of each ball impact and meas-ure the impact range with a ruler. Gen-erally, the poorer the player’s ability and the longer the putt, the bigger the off center hitting area will be. The higher the MOI, the less the distance loss on off center hits. If you hit a 25 foot putt 1" toward the toe with a low MOI center shafted blade putter and a high MOI putter, you could possibly have a 3 foot longer putt with the low MOI putter for your second putt vs. a tap in with the high MOI putter. I do this demonstration on my putting

robot for every student that comes through my golf club design studio and they are quite shocked at the differ-ence in high and low MOI putters. Don’t worry about what shaft is in your putter because it really does not matter. Shafts in putters need to be stiff for everyone. The putter grip type and size you choose should feel com-fortable to you. There are no set rules where one type or size is better than another. The reason for this is because good putters usually do not break their wrists but rather pendulum putt with the shoulders doing the rotation. If the wrists do not break, grip size does not matter as much in putting as it does on all your other clubs. NOTES

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Section Fourteen ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS ?

Here is another interesting thing to do: Read the following questions and an-swer them. Some of you will simply read the questions and answer them silently to yourself. This is fine. Others will actually fill it out. In this manner you can sit back and take a closer look at yourself and your game. Also, this is an excellent interview to take along with you when you are getting fit for golf clubs or simply taking a golf les-son. Actually, this interview, filled out, plus a couple of “Fitting Score-cards” (see page 93) and maybe a cou-ple “Wedge Scorecards” (see pages 78-79)) would be best. The reason why I like this interview is it allows you a preliminary thought process to actually ponder your play-ing characteristics, goals, wants and preferences before someone asks you about them or more importantly how you personally look at golf and your game in general. Maltby Certified Fitting Worksheet — Personal Interview STATISTICS 1. Height ___ft. ___in. 2. Weight _____lbs. 3. Age _____yrs. 4. Male _____ Female _____

5. ■ R-H Golfer ■ L-H Golfer 6. Number of years playing golf: ____Yrs. 7. Current Handicap _____ 8. ■ Handicap is going up

■ Handicap is going down 9. What is your average score _____

10. Scores previous 12 months Highest____ Lowest ____

11. Average number rounds per month during season _____

12. Have you ever taken lessons? ■ Yes ■ No ■ When?____

13. Do you hit practice balls before playing? ■ Regularly ■ Never ■ Sometimes

14. Do you hit practice putts before playing? ■ Regularly ■ Never ■ Sometimes

15. Do you ever hit practice balls just to practice? ■ Regularly ■ Never ■ Sometimes

16. Do you ever practice putting just to practice? ■ Regularly ■ Never ■ Sometimes

PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS 17. Do you have any physical pain when you

swing? ■ Yes ■ No If yes, explain ____________________ _______________________________ _______________________________ Is it: ■ Permanent ■ Temporary

■ Recurring 18. Do you have any other physical

limitations that affect your swing? ■ Yes ■ No If yes, explain ____________________ _______________________________ _______________________________


PLAYING CHARACTERISTICS 19. When you hit a poor drive, do you have a

specific tendency to: (Answer more than one if necessary)

■ Top it ■ Push it right ■ Sky it ■ Slice it right ■ Hit it very low ■ Straight but unsolid hit ■ Pull it left ■ Hook it left ■ Very inconsistent ■ Don’t know ■ Does not apply

20. What is your confidence level with your driver? ■ Very confident ■ Some confidence ■ No confidence

21. How does the weight of your driver feel to you? ■ Too heavy ■ Weight OK ■ Too light ■ Don’t know

22. What is your confidence level with fair way metals? ■ Very ■ Some ■ No confident confidence confidence

23. If you have hybrid clubs, what is your confidence level with hybrids? ■ Very ■ Some ■ No confident confidence confidence

24. When you hit a poor iron shot, do you have a specific tendency to: (Answer more than one if necessary)

■ Top it ■ Push it right ■ Sky it ■ Slice it right ■ Hit it very low ■ Straight but unsolid hit ■ Pull it left ■ Hook it left ■ Very inconsistent ■ Don’t know ■ Does not apply

25. When hitting a long or mid iron approach shot to the green is your tendency more often than not to: ■ Hit the green ■ Left of the green

■ Right of the green ■ On line but short of the green ■ On line but over the green ■ Be very inconsistent ■ Don’t know

26. When hitting a short iron (#8, #9 or any wedge) approach shot to the green is your tendency more often than not to: ■ Hit the green ■ Left of the green ■ Right of the green ■ On line but short of the green ■ On line but over the green ■ Be very inconsistent ■ Don’t know

27. What is the longest iron you hit with confidence: ■ #2 iron ■ #3 iron ■ #4 iron ■ #5 iron ■ #6 iron ■ Don’t know

28. How does the weight of your irons feel to you? ■ Too heavy ■ Weight OK ■ Too light ■ Don’t know

29. How well can you get out of a bunker around the green? ■ No problem with sand play ■ Out and on the green 95% of the time ■ Usually out and on the green ■ Usually stay in bunker ■ Very inconsistent ■ Don’t know

30. What is your confidence level regarding bunker play? ■ Very ■ Some ■ No confident confidence confidence

31. Do you have one or more favorite clubs that you have complete confidence in?■ Yes ■ No

Please list 1.______ 2.______ 3.______

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GOALS, WANTS & PREFERENCES 32. My immediate goal in golf is:

■ I’ll spend a lot of time and energy to improve as rapidly as possible ■ I’ll spend a reasonable amount of time and effort to improve ■ I can spend very little time but want to improve my game ■ I just want to find out if my equipment is right for me

33. My future goal regarding my handicap is to be: ■ A scratch handicap (72) ■ A low handicap 1-8 (73-82) ■ A middle handicap 9-15 (83-89) ■ An average golfer 16-22 (90-98) ■ Don’t know

34. From your own point of view, check off any personal wants that apply: (Check as many as you like, but only if you feel you have a problem in that area) I want to hit the ball: ■ Higher ■ Lower I want to stop: ■ Slicing the ball ■ Pushing the ball ■ Hooking the ball ■ Pulling the ball I want to hit the ball:■ Straighter ■ Longer I want to: ■ Drive the ball with more consistency I want to: ■ Hit my fairway metals more consistently I want to: ■ Hit my short irons with more accuracy I want to: ■ Putt better I want to: ■ Get the ball up & down around greens

I want to: ■ Be a better bunker player Any other wants, explain ___________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________35. Do you have a material preference in the

type of driver you play? ■ Titanium ■ Ti/Composite ■ No preference

36. Do you have a preference in the size of driver you play? ■ 400cc ■ 440cc ■ 460cc (U.S.G.A. max) ■ Other ________________________

37. Do you have a material preference in the type of fairway metals or hybrids you play? ■ Titanium ■ Stainless Steel ■ Multi-material ■ No Preference

38. Do you have a preference in the type of irons you play? ■ Blade style, more traditional ■ Cavity back style - some game improvement features ■ Cavity back style - all game improvement features

NOTES


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Section Fifteen THE FITTING SCORECARD: ANALYZING YOUR GAME The Fitting Scorecard is used as an aid in evaluating your equipment and your game. You can fill it out to keep track of any portion of your round that you desire or you can fill it out com-pletely to take a full look at what hap-pened during your entire round. Filling out a number of these cards may help even more and may turn out to be a real game improver. Information from this exercise has many specific uses in evaluating strengths and weaknesses regarding your equipment, swing and overall golf game. From an equipment standpoint, the Fitting Scorecard will help fine tune any changes or recommendations in areas such as set make-up and equipment alterations. Also it may aid in evaluating any swing problem areas and/or needed practice to maximize your scoring potential. After each Fitting Scorecard is completed, look it over closely and see what you can determine about your own game. The example analysis for the Fitting Scorecard is provided here to help you better evaluate your own Fitting Scorecard after it is filled out. To fully maximize the use of the “Fitting Scorecard” it is suggested that

the help of a golf professional or certi-fied club fitter be utilized. An Example Analysis Of The Fitting Scorecard • Use the Fitting Scorecard instead of

your course scorecard. • Read the instructions carefully at the

bottom of the card. • Notice Par 3’s are circled and Par 5’s

are squared. Also the player’s setmake-up is circled. The players’ name, date, course, par and handicap are filled in.

• Statistics analysis and comments: 3 over on putting (36 putts are consid-ered par), you had zero 1 putts, 3 three putts. You hit 7 greens in regula-tion and missed 11 greens, mostly left or short requiring many wedge shots and/or pitches and chips resulting in no up and downs (1 putt or hole out.)

Comment: Improve your wedge play, green hitting ability and putting. Find out why ball is generally pulled left of green when green is missed. You hit 8 out of 14 fairways, missed 3 left and 2 right with 4 drivers being unsolid. Comment: Driver inconsistent and not solidly hit about 25% of the time. 3 fairway metal was not hit solid, but 5 fairway metal was solidly hit. The irons are usually hit solid but left of the green and short.


7 1 3 0 1 3 1 0 1 1 3 3 3 1 2 3 4 0 2 0 2 0 2 20 44

7 2 2 0 1 0 1 2 3 0 4 2 5 2 0 4 3 1 1 0 1 0 1 19 43 14 3 5 0 2 3 2 2 4 1 7 5 8 3 2 7 7 1 3 0 3 0 3 39 87

Work on putting, chipping. Bad today -never chipped close. Pulled most shots - generally unsolid.

5 4 5 6 5 4 5 5 5

5 4 6 6 4 5 3 5 5

Comment: Check for proper lie angles on irons or swing problem. General Analysis And Comments: Check playability specs on driver, 3 fairway metal and the lie on irons. Also, look at a putter fitting and consider a 60º wedge for better up and down scoring when a green is missed in regulation.

A golf lesson from your golf professional or practice in specific weak areas is recommended. The more Fitting Scorecards you fill out will provide even better data for analysis of your equipment, playing strengths and weaknesses.

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NOTE: Full size cards available for downloading on ralphmaltby.com – scroll down and click on “INDEX” at bottom of any web page then click on “Fitting Score Card.”


Section Sixteen WHAT CAN A GOLFER DO TO GUARANTEE A BETTER CLUB- FITTING AND GOLF CLUB BUYING EXPERIENCE?

Introduction Golf club technology has made rapid advances in recent years? If you are playing with clubs three, four or five years old or older and/or clubs that have not been properly fit to you, then you are probably giving away shots to the forward thinking golfers that truly want to take advantage of modern tech-nology to help them play their best golf. Today’s clubs are easier to hit (better head designs and new materials with advanced weighting principles), they are longer hitting (modern longer club lengths take advantage of the new larger, better weighted heads allowing more solid hits on off-center shots which also translates into more distance and accuracy on off-center shots) and they are more accurate. Today’s modern grips, some of which are made from synthetic materials, don’t wear out easily, offer better trac-tion-control, transmit better clubhead feel at impact and require less grip pressure allowing for less inhibited wrist action during the swing. Shaft materials and new shaft manu-facturing technology (lighter weights,

more consistent bending properties, etc.) have allowed for a much greater design range of shaft specifications to give golfers more choices in satisfying their ball flight and overall playing preferences. Also the total weights of golf clubs have changed because of the new lighter weight shafts and also lighter grips. Manufacturers are doing more testing and have committed more dollars to research and development and as such are selling golf clubs that are easier to hit with more built-in performance than in years past. Even though all this new technology can help you hit the ball better, it is still very important to complete the equation by being properly fit so that you will realize both the club’s and your full potential. To make the right decisions and take full advantage of today’s golf club ad-vancements we need to be as informed as possible before we buy. It is a fact that most golf club purchases are not done in a rational manner and are more emotional decisions. Believe it or not, the type and brand of a golf club that is purchased is mostly influenced by the recommendation of a friend. So, the result is usually one uninformed golfer telling another uninformed golfer what they should buy. This is not the way to go.

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There are a number of techniques and tips that golfers can use to actually make the fitting and/or the buying ex-perience more accurate and enjoyable. There are a number of sources of information available to help in the decision making process. Hopefully, this listing of all my thoughts and reminders will provide the answers to questions that most golfers need to know when they simply want to play better golf with the best equipment for them. Golf Club Company Advertising 1. We are constantly bombarded with

advertising from the golf club companies. Read the ads to see what they have to say but mostly determine if you like the looks and features of their clubs, then dis-count all their performance claims by a large margin. Not all of the manufacturers are as guilty as others, but be leery. The advertising agencies write some outlandish stuff about performance because they are trying to find some edge over their client’s competitors and they also like to overuse the latest buzz words that golfers are talking about. The putter maker’s claims are definitely some of the worst because of so many conflicting technologies with each claiming to work and eachpromising to make you into a great putter.

Wedge makers aren’t far behind the putter makers because they try to sell us on the performance attributes of the head material’s softness which has nothing to do with how a wedge performs, but everything to do with the long established myth of wedge performance. The myth is that softer head materials give a golfer much better feel and thus better control. They are of course mostly referring to forged wedges vs. cast wedges. There are more cast wedges played on the PGA tour than forged, so this should tell you that if the finest players in the world can’t tell the difference or don’t care, then it must not be that important.

Magazine Golf Club Testing 2. The golfing publications (magazines),

in my opinion, have partially done a disservice to all golfers by publish- ing their annual player testing results of the latest clubs to enter the market. With that said, it is wonderful that they put all the new golf club models and related data (set make up, specifications, suggested retail pricing and web site listings) all together in one place for us to use and easily compare. If you ever take the time to analyze how magazines tally their final player testing results, you will probably come away with more questions


sense. It’s really funny that when a certain manufacturer wins a player testing category they are ecstatic and put the “we’re number one” in all their ads. However, when the same manufacturer loses the next time around they complain and cry foul that the testing procedure is not conclusive or flawed. Did you ever notice that the largest club manufacturers with the most ad dollars to spend are almost always the big winners? I really get a kick out of the comments that are quoted in the magazines from the golfers testing the clubs. I have done a lot of golf club player testing in my career and I have never heard any golfer comment on a clubs performance with such overly embellished statements and flowery analogies as is often quoted in the magazines. Bottom line: Definitely buy the annual magazine equipment issues to see and compare all the latest golf clubs in one convenient place. Again, this part is a great service to golfers and the magazines usually organize their new equipment sections very well. However, read their golf club test results (winners, losers and runner-ups) and comments for amusement only. Do not use their so-called player test results to influence your golf club buying decision.

Play What the Tour Pro Plays 3. This suggestion will probably not be

heeded but here goes; simply because a tour pro uses or wins with a certain golf club on tour should have no bearing whatsoever on any buying decision of yours. More importantly, this has no bearing on whether you will actually play better or worse. I guess that it could help in your mental approach to the game by helping to promote a more positive attitude, knowing that the two of you play the same model and brand of driver for example. However, this is really thin as a reason. Have you ever thought about the putter you bought a few years back because tour pro “A” won with it on tour? What about now that tour pro “A” has signed with another putter company who is paying more money? What if he or she wins with this company’s putter? These are things to think about. Tour players on the right day (in the zone) can basically win with just about anything because of their amazing ability. Yes, there are clubs and there is technology that helps them also, but we are the ones that really need to pay attention to the technolo-gies that can help us the most. It should not be surprising that the larger golf club manufacturers spend somewhere between 25 and 50 million dollars on tour player

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endorsements every year to get you to buy their product.

The Club Length Fitting Ruler 4. If anyone tries to fit you to club

length using a ruler that measures your fingertip to floor distance, knuckle to floor distance or wrist to floor distance or whatever distance; you are not getting fit correctly. Standing perfectly upright with your arms hanging down at your sides and being measured in this manner has nothing to do with fitting the proper length or lie of a golf club; but everything to do with convenience and showmanship. The only thing you will learn from this measurement is how normal or weird you are relative to national averages for height vs. arm length (example: a male, 5'2" tall, with a 34" shirt sleeve length is weird). Now here is the ironic part: The 5'2" example just shown using fingertip to floor measurements will put this player into a 40" driver length (a short teenage child length). What if this golfer is a PGA professional who is an excellent player? Axiom: any length golf club can be properly fit to any player by correctly fitting the lie angle. In this example the lie on a 45" driver (let’s say this is the properly fit length for his playing ability) would need to be flattened (reduced) by at least 3 degrees. The reason a number of

club fitters and golf companies do this fingertip to floor or knuckle to floor measurement is because it is impressive to the golfer and very fast to accomplish even though it does not work. Problem is, most golfers are counting on this person or this company’s knowledge and ability to help them. The truth is that determining the proper length golf clubs requires knowledge of the golfer’s playing ability and more specifically how consistently solid he hits the ball. Impact location (off-center face hits vs. on-center face hits) and hitting accuracy (mostly in the fairway or mostly in the rough) are factors. To determine this, the clubfitter will have you hit different length golf clubs and either use impact decals or a launch monitor screen to determine impact variables (location of hit, trajectory, directional control). Obviously, this is much more involved than simply measuring a golfer’s fingertip; wrist or knuckle to floor measurement; but this method actually works.

Evaluate Your Game Honestly 5. Be honest about your game. Evalu-

ate your ability including strengths and weaknesses in all parts of your game. What are your desires for future improvement and how much time are you willing to spend to get there. Yes, the latest technology in clubs and balls can make a very


greatest advancements in improving your play will come from downright hard work through practice (this is probably the kind of hard work many people would gladly agree to do). Be sure to fill out the personal interview questions on pages 88 to 90. Take this with you to show your club fitter or golf instructor. These questions make sure that you think about all aspects of your play. There are four other evaluation cards that you can fill out after a round of golf that can help you gain an even greater insight into your game. The first is the “Golf Club Equipment and Playing Evaluation Fitting Score Card” explained on pages 91 to 92. The second is the “Wedge Score Card” on pages 75 to 79. The third is the “Golf Club Yardage Chart” on page 112 and the fourth is the “Personal Golf Round Information” on page 114. If you take the time to fill these out, you can also take them along when you are taking lessons, getting fit or buying new clubs. Of course, you may not want to take any of this along with you because you have now become a real expert on your ability, exactly where your overall game currently standsand you can now speak it fluently.

Hitting and Comparing Demo Clubs 6. It is important to do a little research

regarding one golf club company’s specifications vs. another. You can

get on their websites or rely on your salesperson’s knowledge (which is usually quite good) or they will look it up for you. Manufactur-ers vary quite a bit and sometimes dramatically. Also, there really is no such thing as a “standard” set of specifications among the manufac-turers; but there is a so-called “standard” used as a reference by many club fitters, golf professionals and most people selling golf clubs. The basic specifications we are referring to here are loft and length for both men’s and women’s clubs. Obviously there are a number of other specifications that are impor-tant and need to be dealt with during the fitting but loft and length can preliminarily tell us quite a bit about our upcoming hitting (demo) experience. The following chart can be used for reference:

5 Iron 5 Iron Driver Loft Length Length

Men’s 27º 38" 45"

Ladies’ 30º 37" 44"

Forget this thing about one length for steel golf clubs and another longer length for graphite golf clubs. This is ridiculous and was only developed because the club manufacturers only wanted to buy (read inventory) one clubhead weight for two different shaft weight materials. If you made both clubs the same length, the head weight

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would be too light on graphite shafts because lighter shafts require heavier head weights to maintain the same swingweight. So, they solved this problem by making graphite shafted clubs 1" longer than steel shafted clubs. Regardless of what length iron or driver you demo, simply be aware of the length (loft also) so you can better under-stand differences in actual ball flight or readings on the launch monitor. Generally longer club lengths go farther but with less accuracy. Regarding lofts, a number of models on the market are one half to one club stronger meaning some 5 irons for men can be as low as 23º with others at 24º, 25º or 26º (the average or so-called standard for men is 27º today). This is mostly done so the golf club manufacturer can claim a longer hitting club over their competitors (or the clubs you are currently playing) but they always explain this longer hitting distance as a result of some new proprietary technology they developed. The real problem here for golfers is that strengthened lofts on irons, say 23º for a 5 iron, now makes the 6 iron a long iron in your bag. So, the 3, 4, 5, and 6 are long irons. The 7, 8, and 9 irons are mid irons and the pitching wedge is your only short iron in the set. Doesn’t make much sense, does it? Many ladies irons are only re-badged and/or recolored men’s

models, so these irons will have whatever loft that was specified on the men’s model. I can’t say it enough; ladies clubs need to be specifically designed for them. Basically ladies need higher lofts, shorter lengths, lower and farther back center of gravity, wider soles with increased bounce, more flexible shafts with lower bend points and smaller grip sizes. So, we have emphasized loft and length here but remember that swingweight, shaft type, and grip size are some more important considerations. The point to make here is to demo the clubs methodically and analytically by checking out specification differ-ences and always get a proper club fitting.

The Club Fitters Credentials 7. Ask about the qualifications and

credentials of the club fitter you are working with. Here’s my preference in order of importance: First, this should be a “Certified” club fitter. How extensively trained and tested were they to become certified? What reputable school have they attended or audited with “at home” materials? Are they “Launch Monitor Certified” on their current equipment and do they also have ball fitting knowledge? With today’s variations in ball flight characteristics, and the many balls and price ranges available, this is a


necessity to maximize your potential. Also, is there a constant ongoing certification update program to keep up with the latest procedures and equipment technologies? Second, it is also good if they have attended one nationally recognized school on club fitting and/or assembly. Third, if it is not this person, is someone available who really understands the swing and its relationship to club fitting? Many times club fitters work with and coordinate with PGA professionals so that swing questions can be answered and necessary lesson suggestions can be made either before or after a purchase. Why not eliminate some bad swing or stroke or setup problem now? This can maximize the club fitting and buying experience because it can more easily result in significantly improved play and possibly save years of continued bad habits.

Additional Information Use MPF (Maltby Playability Factor) for Irons The Maltby Playability Factor (MPF) was developed to help golfers select irons that best fit the golfer’s ability. MPF defines certain mass and dimen-sional properties of the iron head and places it in one of six playability categories which defines how easy or hard the iron head is to hit.

Maltby Playability Factor (MPF) Categories for Irons

Ultra Game Improvement 851 points and up

Super Game Improvement 701 to 850 points

Game Improvement 551 to 700 points

Conventional 401 to 550 points

Classic 251 to 400 points

Player Classic Below 250 points

This allows the golfer and/or the club fitter to pick a category based on a number of criteria: Is this a new golfer getting started? How consistently does the golfer strike the ball near or on the clubface? It also prevents a golfer from making a mistake by selecting say a muscleback blade (or even some cavity backs) in a lower playability category when they are not near a good enough ball striker to hit this club solid with any consistency. MPF is not a system to pick out a bad club from a good one. Truth is that most top grade clubs are all quite good. It simply tells you which one is more forgiving and thus easier to hit consistently than another. MPF does not take into account the loft on an iron or the bounce on its sole or even if the lie angle is right for you. It cannot help you with grip size or the proper fitted shaft. This is all up to the club fitter. MPF simply tells you which mass and dimensional properties of

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the clubhead itself (made up of the clubhead’s center of gravity location and moment of inertia) will help you the most. You can look up many of the golf club manufacturers MPF ratings on ralphmaltby.com. Also, there are additional articles on the website that more fully explain MPF. Always Consider the Set Make-Up of Your Clubs It’s not about the USGA’s 14 club limit rule; it’s all about playing with the 14 best clubs for you. Whether you are buying one club or a set of clubs you need to always evaluate the set make up of your clubs. They all need to work together to give you incremental dis-tance control and cover the distances you need to hit. It is also important that your set of clubs all feel the same even though they may be made up of 2, 3 or even 4 or more brands. You do this by making sure the grips on your set are all the same brand and your fitted grip size is the same throughout the set. You also need to check and see that your wedges are in the correct incre-mental club lengths to match up with your existing 9 iron or pitching wedge. When you just pop in and buy a new wedge you need to know that many of them will be different lengths from manufacturer to manufacturer. When buying a wedge, this is the time to change the grip and possibly shorten or lengthen it if necessary. Be sure

and take your 9 iron or pitching wedge with you to the place of purchase. Hybrids are very popular and can complement your game if you choose them correctly. As far as I am con-cerned, you select hybrids to either eliminate the 3 iron, 4 iron or possible the 5 iron. You also select hybrids to fill in for the 1 iron or 2 iron, if desired. In all cases hybrids should be easier to hit than long irons. It doesn’t matter if the hybrid is a hollow iron style or a narrowed fairway metal style (al-though I prefer the narrowed fairway metal style), but what matters most is that it has a hybrid or fairway metal shaft in it and not an iron shaft. Iron shafts do not work as well in hybrids because they are stiffer than fairway metal shafts. I do not like to eliminate fairway metals for a hybrid although it is completely acceptable if this is bet-ter for your game and you are thinking 1 iron or 2 iron performance. Fairway metals still work best for longer, higher shots because they have the advantage of being longer in club length than hybrids of the same loft, their center of gravity is usually more rearward and their shafts are more flexible to also aid in getting the ball well up into the air. The key here is to hit them before buying and be sure you have looked at your set make-up to be sure they fit into your game plan.


A Few Quick Tips to Further Help Your Buying and Fitting Experience 1. If applicable, bring in one of your

current clubs to hit and compare with a club(s) you are thinking about buying.

2. When hitting on a launch monitor pay close attention to how accurate you are hitting the club and not just how far you are hitting it. Also, look for a more ideal trajectory trying to get maximum carry.

3. If something, anything does not feel right or look right to you after a club fitting and/or a purchase, go back and talk to the club fitter or salesperson and discuss it. Your future business and the relationship with customers are very important in today’s business climate.

4. If you are buying a closeout club(s) or a discontinued model, ask why? Was it a poor performer, simply did not sell well, is the technology old but still valid, will it still have future trade in value and what did golfers say who bought it. You should get an honest acceptable answer from someone who wants to keep all your business.

5. Never, ever buy a new putter without at least getting it fit for proper length and lie angle. Reason: The standard length putters for men and women on the rack are mostly too long for many if not most golfers. This causes the golfer to adjust their

setup position (posture) and stroke to a putter which is not the correct length for them.

6. Women, if you are a so-called average to higher handicap golfer, always insist on “Ultra Game Improve-ment” MPF irons designed specifi-cally for women. This includes wedges with wider sole widths, putters with higher moments of inertia and a 450cc to 460cc driver with at least 12º of loft. These four factors have helped many of the women golfers play much better.

7. If anyone out there is playing with a driver less than 440 c.c.’s or is over 3 years old, you do not have the latest technology that can really make a difference in your game. The new model 460 c.c. drivers are mostly all pushing the U.S.G.A. rules limits on maximum head size, maximum coef-ficient of restitution and maximum moment of inertia. Whether the driver head is normal shaped, trian-gular or square doesn’t really make all that much difference as long as it is close to the current U.S.G.A. lim its, comes from a reputable manufac-turer and when you hit it the performance is noticeable.

8. With today’s capabilities and under-standing of golf club iron design, there is absolutely no reason any golfer should play with irons that are not at least “Game Improve- ment” and higher regarding the Maltby Playability Factor (MPF)

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rating. Even muscle backed blade style irons can be designed easily into this minimum category. I have accomplished this with muscle back designs I did for Tommy Armour, Maxfli, Toski, PowerBilt and The GolfWorks. Some of these irons were played on the PGA Tour, the Senior Tour and the European Tour.

9. A golf ball fitting is more important than ever because of the different flight characteristics that the ball manufacturers can vary to maximize distance and control. To do this properly requires that the golfer use a launch monitor to get the ideal ball launch angles and spin rates.

Summary

• Do a little research on club specifications.

• Be sure to actually hit a club before you buy it.

• Always use the services of a “Certified” club fitter.

• Take a lesson from a PGA professional.

• Don’t buy a golf club simply because a “friend “recommended it.

• Always keep your set make-up in mind.

• Women, only buy clubs made specifically for women.

• Don’t buy based on magazine player test results and recommendations.

• Be honest with yourself about your game.

• Don’t buy a golf club simply because it was a winner on last Sunday’s PGA Tour event.

• Discount a lot of the golf club manufacturer’s advertising claims.

• Find out what golf ball fits your game the best.

NOTES


Section Seventeen THE SECRET TO PLAYING BETTER GOLF If we could all pick one major goal in golf it would be to play better. Playing better means hitting longer, more ac-curate golf shots with the best club for any given situation. Much of this book provides information towards achiev-ing this goal; but I felt it was necessary to put the so-called “secret” here to help visualize and summarize how it is achieved. It is really no secret at all but rather a logical look at those factors that control clubhead impact with a golf ball. In order to play better, we must hit the ball more solid and more square more of the time. Here are the swing factors at impact which create square or non square hits:

1. Clubhead path (outside in, square or inside out).

2. Clubface angle (open, square or closed).

3. Clubhead speed (accelerating rate is good, decelerating rate is not so good, faster swing speeds is good and slower swing speeds is not so good).

4. Angle of attack (arc angle of clubhead vertically as it descends into the impact area). The swing produces two basic angles of attack; hitting down on the ball and a more horizontal sweeping type swing.

5. Face impact location (toe hit bad, center hit good or heel hit bad).

Here is what a more square (solid) hit will accomplish:

1. The squarer the hit the more energy is applied to the ball, resulting in greater distance.

2. The squarer the hit the less curve on the ball, usually resulting in a straighter hit.

3. The squarer the hit the greater the amount of backspin with each different lofted club, usually resulting in better bite through reduced roll.

4. The squarer the hit will achieve the best trajectory with that club.

5. The squarer the hit the more solid the feel at impact.

And here is what it takes to accomplish this - the Five P’s: 1. Practice 2. Play 3. Professional Swing Instruction 4. Positive Attitude 5. Properly Fit, Quality Equipment Each of the 5 P’s are fully explained in Section One beginning on page 7.

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Section Eighteen DEFINITIONS OF GOLF TERMS Below are listed a number of terms, some of which you will see in advertisements, hear on television tournament broadcasts, or possibly mentioned by golf sales personnel. Also, there are some terms which are just plain interesting and help increase your overall golf knowledge. If you cannot find a definition here, go to ralphmaltby.com for a much expanded glossary. If you still cannot find what you want, send me a question in the “comments” section of the website. ANGLE OF ATTACK – The degree of descent of the clubhead approaching the ball just prior to impact. Sometimes referenced as a steep or shallow angle of attack. BELLY PUTTER – Type of putter in which the butt of the grip is positioned against the player’s belly button in order to create a pendulum effect. Most belly putters are 39" to 42" in length. Popu-larized by Vijay Singh, Paul Azinger, and Sergio Garcia, among others on the PGA Tour. Putter head weights usually range from 360 grams to 450 grams for belly putters. BEND POINT – The maximum point of bending in a golf shaft when a shaft is loaded or compressed from both ends. The bend point determines the curve of the shaft which can sometimes be referenced as “tip stiff”, “tip weak”, “mid deflected”, “butt stiff”, “butt weak”. Bend Point is also referred to as “flex point” or “kick point”.

BETA TITANIUM – A titanium alloy that has a higher strength to weight ratio than a non - beta titanium alloy. The higher strength to weight ratios in Beta Ti alloys make them a good choice for use as a face material in oversize drivers. The increased strength to weight ratio allows for thinner face dimensions (also variable thickness faces), which can in-crease ball speed after contact resulting in increased distance. Common Beta Ti materials used in the face of Titanium Drivers are 15-3-3-3, 10-2-3, and SP 700. BLADE – Term used to describe a type of conventional or traditional design of iron. Also, can refer to the face area of an iron (as in “Blade” length). Also a term to describe a low flying mis-hit golf shot that is struck on the leading edge of an iron and not on the face (example; He “bladed” the shot). BORON – A high strength, high modulus lightweight filament that is 5 times the strength of steel and twice the stiffness. Used as one of several material types in composite shaft designs. Boron influ-ences flex point but primarily is used to add strength to the tip area of the shaft. BOUNCE (OR INVERSION) – When the trailing edge of the sole is below the leading edge of the sole in the square hit position. Bounce is most noticeable on a sand wedge but it also exists in all other wedges and most irons produced today. Bounce is used to keep the lead-ing edge of the clubhead from digging and hitting the ball “fat”. Also, on a down and through swing which takes a divot, the bounce on the sole will help


to “shallow” out the divot and bring the clubhead out of the ground sooner. BULGE – The horizontal curvature (from toe to heel) on the face of metal woods expressed in inches of radius. This in-cludes drivers, fairway metals and most hybrids. CAMBER – The radius curve on the sole of an iron club, whether from toe to heel or leading edge to trailing edge, or both. Hence, 2 way and 4 way radius or camber. Referred to also as a rocker sole, radiused sole, 2 way radius and 4 way roll. CAVITY BACK – A term used to describe a type of iron head that has a cavity in the back portion of the iron head. Generally, cavity back irons have more perimeter weighting than non-cavity back irons, making them more forgiving (higher Maltby Playability Factor or MPF) on off-center hits. However, there are exceptions to this general rule re-garding playability. CENTER OF GRAVITY (CG) – The point in a clubhead at which all of the points of balance intersect. CG is often referred to as the “sweet spot” although this is not technically correct. However, for practical purposes it is alright to use “sweet spot”. Usually, the lower the CG of a club, the higher the ball flight and the easier the club is to hit solid. Higher CG club’s produce lower ball flights and are usually harder to hit. COEFFICIENT OF RESTITUTION (COR) – The efficiency percentage of a collision. For example: If a golf ball is fired into the face of a driver at 100 MPH and the ball rebounds off the driver face at

84 MPH the driver is said to have a COR of .84 or the collision was 84% efficient. The U.S.G.A. now uses a different method to calculate COR which is referred to as Controlled Time (CT), but the results mean the same as was explained above. Older persimmon drivers had a COR of around .78 and most modern day drivers are at the U.S.G.A. legal limit of .83 COR. COMPOSITE – A combination of materi-als comprised of a base material and some type of adhesive to bind them to-gether. Can come in a variety of forms ranging from fibers, particles or layers. A principle term used to describe graphite golf shaft construction, and clubheads made of more than one material (usu-ally metal and graphite). COUNTER BALANCE – The process of adding weight in the butt end of a shaft to achieve a specific swingweight and/or feel. Counter balancing will increase the overall weight of the club and is not a widely recommended procedure be-cause it takes twice as much weight in the butt end of the club to affect the same swingweight change as it does in the clubhead end of the club. DARRELL SURVEY – Organization that counts and publishes equipment usage on professional golf tours. The Survey counts club and ball type and brand, type of clothing and shoes used, etc. The information is published and is made available to equipment companies and golfers by subscription only. DYNAMIC FITTING – Method of fitting golf clubs in which fitting decisions are made based upon ball striking tests.

Gained credibility and wide acceptance following the printing of Ralph Maltby’s book titled, “The Complete Golf Club Fitting Plan.” This is still the standard fit-ting manual for the Professional Golfers Association of America. FACE ANGLE – The angle of the clubface in relation to the target line when the golf club is in the address position or ac-tually the angle of the clubhead at any point along the swing path. The term is also used to describe the designed face angle built-in to any metal wood head. The designed-in Face Angle can either be in a closed position to the target line (hooked face), square to the target line (square face) or open to the target line (slice face). FACE BALANCED – A putter that, when balanced on its shaft horizontally, will exhibit the property of the putter face being parallel to the ground. Some put-ter companies claim an advantage over other putter manufacturing methods, but I have never discovered any benefits or disadvantages. FACE PROGRESSION – Measurement of the distance from the centerline of the shaft or hosel bore to the farthest front leading portion of the clubface in both woods and irons. Face Progression is a better way for golf club designers to specify the clubface position relative to the hosel vs. “offset” which is close in definition but not exactly the same measurement. FILAMENT WINDING – The process for manufacturing a seamless composite shaft with continuous resin-impreg-nated “yarns” of graphite wound

around a mandrel in a pre-determined pattern from tip to butt, forming a shaft. This is the expensive way to build composite shafts and also control shaft specifications the best. The other method is using a made up “pre-peg” and hand wrapping or “table wrap-ping” the material around a mandrel. This also is a very acceptable method with shaft quality being more depen-dant on the skill of the individual. FLEX POINT – The location on the shaft where the bend is the greatest. Shafts will have either low, mid or high flex points. Generally, high flex points help better players and low to mid flex points all other handicaps. Also see the defini-tion for “Bend Point”. FLOW WEIGHTING – A method of head design in which the positioning of the weight in a set of heads is moved pro-gressively in some direction from one club to the next. For example, a 1 iron may have more weight concentrated in its toe area, a 2 iron slightly less, and so on down to the 9 iron which is toward the heel area. FORGING – A process for manufacturing or forming golf clubheads in which a piece of billet material is hammered or “forged” into a shape using a number of different progressive dies in a large tonnage press. Many forged golf clubheads today are called forged but are actually cast heads that are hit once in a die set to make them so-called legitimate. This is not the same as a true forged clubhead and is 1/3 the cost to produce. FORGED TITANIUM – A method of wood

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and sole of the head is formed (forged) from titanium. The face and hosels of such woods are usually cast from 6-4 ti (although some are machined). Forged titanium woods are usually less costly than casting due to their ease of form-ing as well as their lower raw material cost. There are no playability advan-tages in either the casting method or the forging method of making titanium heads if both are done correctly. 431SS – A type of high quality stainless steel used to make investment cast iron heads. If it is heat treated properly, the lofts and lie angles can be bent 3º to 4º in any direction when custom fitting a set of irons. GEAR EFFECT – The effect, caused by horizontal face bulge, that tends to cause a ball hit toward the toe or heel side of face center to curve back to the intended target line. Gear effect also ap-plies to vertical face roll on the larger (450cc to 460cc) deep faced drivers where it can reduce the back spin rate mostly on above center hits. GOLF CLUB NAME TERMINOLOGY

Driver - Name given to the 1 wood

Brassie - Older name given to a 2 wood

Spoon - Older name given to the 3 wood

Cleek - Older name given to the 4 wood

Baffy - Older name give to the 5 wood

Driving Iron - Older name give to the 1 iron

Mid Iron - Older name give to the 2 iron

Mid Mashie - Older name given to the 3 iron

Mashie Iron - Older name give to the 4 iron

Mashie - Older name given to the 5 iron

Spade Mashie - Older name given to the 6 iron

Mashie Niblick - Older name give to the 7 iron

Niblick - Older name given to the 8 and 9 irons

Note: The names on older irons could vary some-what at the whim of the manufacturer. Pitching wedges, gap wedges, sand wedges and 60º or lob wedges came along later and therefore do not have older names. GRAPHITE COMPOSITE – A golf shaft made of a low percentage of carbon graphite and a higher percentage of an-other material such as fiberglass. This is done to lower the cost of the shaft. I do not recommend these shafts. HEEL/TOE WEIGHTING – The process of weight distribution whereby weight is relocated from the center of a metal wood or iron equally to the toe and heel areas. This process does not change the center of gravity location horizontally, but does improve off-cen-ter hits by putting more mass in these areas. This is one method to raise the moment of Inertia (MOI) of the club-head. INVESTMENT CASTING (ALSO KNOWN AS THE “LOST WAX” PROCESS) – A method of accurately producing iron heads and metal woods. A mold is made from a master model and a wax is cast from the mold. This wax is dipped sev-eral times in a ceramic slurry or mixture which then hardens. The slurry is heated and the wax melts out (lost wax). Molten metal is poured into the slurry


shell (invested) and allowed to cool. KICK POINT – See “BEND POINT” MODULUS – The amount a material will deform when stressed. High modu-lus graphite has a higher resistance to deformity (bending) because the carbon atoms lie closer together to form a stronger bond. Used in graphite shaft advertising. MOMENT OF INERTIA (MOI) – The clubhead’s resistance to twisting when the golf ball is impacted off-center or not on the center of gravity location horizontally. Higher MOI’s resist twisting more than lower MOI’s. OEM (ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT MANU-FACTURER) – A golf club company dedicated to designing and building golf clubs for sale to the public. OFFSET (ALSO CALLED HOSEL OFFSET) – The distance from the farthest front por-tion of the hosel to the farthest front portion of the leading edge of the club-face. (See “progressive offset.”) OVERALL WEIGHT (ALSO CALLED STATIC WEIGHT, TOTAL WEIGHT AND DEAD WEIGHT) – The measurement in grams or ounces of a golf club’s actual total weight. This includes the complete as-sembled golf club. PARALLEL TIP SHAFT – The type of shaft construction in which the shaft has one constant diameter in its tip section. .370" is a common tip size for parallel tip iron shafts, while .335" is common for wood shafts. Parallel tip shafts can often be used in any club in the set; the same shaft can be used to assemble a 1 iron or a sand wedge simply by trim-

ming the shaft tip to the proper length. Parallel tip shafts are favored by club-makers, although a number of OEM’s use them as well. They help to reduce inventory levels in shops. PERIMETER WEIGHTING – Process of weighting a club whereby most of the weight is placed in the toe, heel and sole of the head rather than the center. The term is most commonly used to refer to cavity backed irons, although it can be applied to all golf club types PROGRESSIVE OFFSET – Usually applies to irons. On each iron club the distance from the farthest front portion of the hosel to the farthest front portion of the iron’s leading edge changes in di-mension. In other words, a 2 iron in the set may have a lot of offset and when you get to the 9 iron it may have none. The offset diminishes proportionately from the long irons to the short irons. This feature helps players hit down and through long irons (more offset) and better “line up” the easier to hit short irons (very little or no offset). Some golf club companies have made progressive offset irons the opposite of the above example. RIBBED GRIP OR REMINDER GRIP – A grip that has a raised section along the vertical length of the back of the grip. Certain players believe a ribbed grip will help them maintain uniform hand posi-tion on all clubs in the set. Tour players generally do not prefer ribbed grips. SCOTCH TOE – A type of iron head design where the toe is somewhat square in its appearance as opposed to being rounded. Term used more in the

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golf club company to use this term frequently. SET MAKE-UP – The particular comple-ment of golf clubs in any set which by U.S.G.A. Rules cannot exceed 14 clubs. 17-4SS – A type of stainless steel used in the manufacture of investment cast iron heads, denoting 17% chromium and 4% nickel in the metal composition. 17-4 is predominantly used in irons, fairway metals, hybrids and some putters. SHAFT FLEX – A comparative measure-ment of a shaft’s resistance to bending or deflection under a given stress and load. Flex can be measured on a shaft deflection board and is usually divided into the 6 shaft flexes: LL, L, A, R, S and X. SHAFT FREQUENCY – The measurement of the rate of oscillations (cycles per minute, CPM) of a given flex shaft at a given head weight and club length. The frequency of a shaft or a golf club is used to determine the flex feel of that shaft or golf club using a dynamic method vs. using static measurements. Also called “Frequency Matching” when the set or more than one club is compared. SOLE WEIGHTING – Distributing the weight on a metal wood, hybrid or iron head as low in the head as it can be placed. This process is usually associated with lower profile clubs such as irons, hybrids and other utility type clubs that perform best with a very low center of gravity. Sole weighting can also be used to move the center of gravity more rear-ward in a clubhead usually by widening the sole.

STATIC FITTING – Method of fitting golf clubs using charts or rulers. Seldom do players actually hit shots. This is used when the club fitter cannot actually be with the player to use the proper “Dynamic Fitting” method (such as being fit over the internet). It will use measurements like “fingertip to floor” for fitting club length. It will sometimes use index finger length to fit grip size and so on. It simply does not work. STRONG (LOFT) – Less loft than is the standard for any given club. SWINGWEIGHT – A measurement using a special weighing scale which deter-mines the golf club’s overall weight dis-tribution. In other words, it produces a measurement based on the weight dis-tribution of the shaft, grip and head in a given length golf club. The swingweight scale uses a fixed fulcrum point to bal-ance the club which is most commonly 14”. Swingweight is expressed by a letter/number combination such as A1, B2, C3, D1, D-5, etc. SWEET SPOT – The intersecting balance points of mass or “spot” on a clubhead. The impact point on a clubhead that produces the most solid feel when a ball is struck. Mostly, “sweet spot” is an incorrect term for identifying the club-head’s center of gravity location. When “sweet spot” is used to refer to the hitting area of forgiveness, it is also taking into account the clubhead’s moment of inertia (MOI). TAPER TIP SHAFT – One of a number of shafts manufactured with a tip section that varies in length and diameter below the first step. This type of shaft


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requires that a specific length, known as a discreet length shaft be made for each club in a set. Taper tip shafts are still available today and are used by some manufacturers although their greatest popularity was prior to 1990. The most common tip taper shaft used today is a .355" tip for irons. TORQUE – The amount of rotational twist that occurs in a golf shaft during the swing. Generally, low torque shafts are for better players who release the club later and have higher swing speeds. Higher torque (more twisting) shafts are for higher handicap players and with slower swing speeds. This is only a very general rule. WEAK (LOFT) – More loft than is the standard for any given club.

NOTES


Section Nineteen GOLF CLUB YARDAGE CHART

Here’s something that is rarely done but it can help you save strokes. Knowing the exact distance you hit your clubs not only enhances your confidence but also replaces some guessing with real facts. This is especially useful when you are determining your best set make-up to play with. Adding in a new hybrid or a wedge that will help you the most requires that you know the actual distances that you hit each club. Why carry two clubs that hit the same distance if you really only need to fill in a distance gap?

Estimated Yardage: First, fill in this part as best you can using carry only at this point. What club do you hit from the 150 yard marker? Take any known distance such as this and use it to fill in the rest of the iron spaces. Usually golfers get 8 - 12 yards between iron clubs (10 yard average) and 13 to 17 yards between fairway metals (15 yards average). I really like to fill in this estimated yardage column because it proves that many of us have a tough time simply guessing how far we hit the ball in the air. One way to get your actual yardages is to use the yardage on a number of different golf holes. For example, hit your driver and then pace either back or up to the 150 yard marker.

Golf Club Yardage Chart

Estimated Actual Actual Yardage Yardage Yardage (carry) (carry) (carry & roll)

Driver

3 Metal

4 Metal

5 Metal

7 Metal

9 Metal

11 Metal

Hybrid

Hybrid

2 Iron

3 Iron

4 Iron

5 Iron

6 Iron

7 Iron

8 Iron

9 Iron

Pitching Wedge

Gap Wedge

Sand Wedge

60° Wedge

63°+ Wedge

The way I like to do it is to use a hand held range finder (the new, mostly expensive units that look like a pair of binoculars) measuring back from the flag distance on the second shot. You can eventually get all your club’s ac-tual yardages during a practice round or out on the driving range. Don’t use the distance markers on most driving ranges because you can never be sure where they were measured from on the teeing area. Also, don’t use a launch monitor or a golf simulator’s distances. These are usually calculated using a mathematician’s algorithms and are rarely consistent with all your clubs. Remember, we want two sets of yardages; actual carry only and carry and roll combined. For example; carry only, can really help you when you want to carry a bunker with your driver off the tee or carry an iron to a certain landing spot on the green. Carry and roll combined helps with any lay up shot on a par 5 hole with an iron or a fairway metal. I know, roll is dependant on a lot of factors, but we can use the averages which is still a lot better than nothing at all. Trust me, this really is a good exercise which is actually much easier to do than my explanation here. Pick your own method of getting the information, but do it.

NOTES

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PERSONAL GOLF ROUND INFORMATION Round Score Fairways Greens Total 3 Total All

No. Date Gross/Net Course Played Hit Hit Putts Putts Wedges Hit

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

Section Twenty PERSONAL GOLF ROUND INFORMATION

Use this guide to keep track of your rounds of golf each year or season.

Information at a glance can be valu-able in spotting trends.

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PERSONAL GOLF ROUND INFORMATION Round Score Fairways Greens Total 3 Total All

No. Date Gross/Net Course Played Hit Hit Putts Putts Wedges Hit

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

Section Twenty One

GOLF BALL FITTING

Golf balls have always been different from one manufacturer to another, but not as much as they are today. We have golf balls today that are refined to the point where the manufacturers can control the spin amount, spin duration, trajectory and a few other proprietary flight characteristics that only they know about. We basically categorize these balls as “high launch, low spin” and “lower launch, high spin”. Of course this is fairly broad to only name two categories of flight characteristics when in fact there are varying degrees of launch and spin rates. Recent years have seen huge improvements in golf ball performance. There is no doubt that the ball has been just as big, if not the biggest, contributor to the added distance golfers are getting. Yes, golf clubs have done their part also and par-ticularly so with the distance technol-ogy designed into modern drivers. Today’s golf balls can be made of differ-ent materials, different construction methods and different design philoso-phies. All this adds up to different per-formance characteristics that golfers are expected to sort through to find the ideal ball for them. However, if you throw in the variable of cost to the golfer; the decision gets even harder. Many golfers ask, “If I spend more on a dozen balls, will they perform better,

how much better and is it worth it?” A golfer could spend a lifetime of experi-menting with all the balls available and still not be able to keep track of all the perceived results obtained from rounds of golf or practice sessions where he was either hitting the ball good, fair or badly. This is where golf ball fitting comes into play. Proper ball fitting can zero you in on the best flight characteristics and the actual ball to help you play the best with your current swing and equipment. The best way to accom-plish this is to hit balls using a launch monitor, see Fig. 21-1. You need to be sure that you are using your driver and that you are teeing the ball to the same height as you do on the golf course. Also, this is not the time to try and impress everyone with how far

FIG. 21-1

Launch Monitor


you can hit the ball by over swinging at it. Swing as you would on the golf course when you are playing for a good score. There are many factors, other than the ball, that control the launch angle and spin rate you apply to the ball. You need to minimize as many of these variables as possible to get the most accurate results. Most of the launch monitor installations will have different ball types for you to try. If you really want to know how the ball you are currently playing stacks up to other golf balls, be sure and take one or two along with you to the session. I mentioned earlier that there are other characteristics of golf balls be-sides launch angle and spin rates. All of these characteristics together add up to two important results which are

the distance and direction a golf ball will fly. Direction as it relates to the golf ball itself is more accurately de-scribed as “dispersion”. Dispersion is the left to right variance of a certain golf balls flight when it is hit under ideal test conditions. Dispersion can be influenced by a golf balls dimple de-sign, weight distribution and the man-ufacturing quality level to name only a few. Here is a dispersion example of a poorly manufactured ball when putting. If the balls balance point (center of gravity) is not in the exact center of the ball, the dispersion will generally be greater. When putting, this usually means that the accuracy of the putted ball will be reduced. This however will be dependant on how the

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FIG. 21-2

Putting Robots

balance point (heavy side or light side) relative to the direction the putt will be hit. In other words, if you place the heavy side of the ball to the left of the target, the ball will go more to the left than it normally would. Conversely, if you placed the heavy side of the ball to the right, the ball will go more to the right. I do this demonstration all the time using my precision putting robot (see Fig. 21-2) with every group of students who come through The Golf-Works schools and they are simply amazed. When I show it to a tour pro who happens through the studio, they leave saying that they are going to check every ball before teeing it up. This is the reason that the electronic ball balancer or the liquid solutions (salt water) ball balancing method (see Fig. 21-3) is popular with many golfers. Check out the short video on golf ball balancing on ralphmaltby.com for more information. A golf ball that is not balanced will also be affected in flight. When the ball is struck and starts to spin, its initial di-rection can be influenced by a heavy or light side. However, it does not take long for the ball to re-orient the heavy side to the ball’s back spin axis where it no longer has as significant an effect on poor directional control. This is the opposite of a putted ball which cannot correct itself.

Your goal should be to select a golf ball to maximize distance and minimize dispersion and also, one that will putt accurately. You do not need to get all hung-up on launch angles and spin rates. However, you need to get your-self into a launch monitor and do a ball fitting because it is more important than ever with today’s widely varied and highly technical golf ball designs.

NOTES:


FIG. 21-3

Ball Balance Kit

Section Twenty Two BUILDING YOUR OWN GOLF CLUBS IS ONE GREAT HOBBY!

Why? Because everyone needs to relax and do something that they enjoy. Many jobs are stressful and many are not, but we simply need to get away from work occasionally to expand our horizons and maybe, just maybe, we can learn something new and have some fun in the process. The only rea-son that I am in the golf business today was simply my desire to learn more about the sport I loved. Unfortunately, back in the 1960’s it was impossible to obtain any information about the tech-nical aspects of golf clubs. The only in-formation I found was a small booklet about golf club repair written by Kenneth Smith. The problem with the book was that it had very little infor-mation in it and was terribly outdated. This is not the case today. Anyone looking for technical information on golf clubs has numerous books, videos and articles to read and has the poten-tial to learn as much or more about golf clubs than many of the people who are currently in the golf business. The GolfWorks Clubmaking Schools are another great way to get hands on experience and learn at your own pace. The people

who attend our schools come from varied backgrounds. Many are school teachers, golf professionals, lawyers, doctors, dentists, construc-tion workers or simply interested

golfers. However, they all have one thing in common, which is, they love

golf and want to get more involved in it and understand more about their equipment. Building golf clubs, repair-ing golf clubs, fitting golf clubs or sim-ply altering the specifications of golf clubs is exciting and that’s what makes it fun. We all have to start somewhere when we take up a new hobby. To find out if this is really for you, simply take the first step and either build a golf club or regrip your set of clubs. Individual golf club kits and the regrip kits come with complete instructions. To find out more about this great hobby visit www.golfworks.com and www.ralphmaltby.com. Roll up your sleeves and jump right in. It’s inexpensive, educational and very rewarding.

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About Ralph Maltby Ralph Maltby has influenced every aspect of mod-ern clubmaking from golf club fitting to his many patented innovations in golf club design to his six best selling reference books. The first book is the definitive work called “Golf Club Design, Fitting, Alteration and Repair”. This 900 page hardcover book is the official reference manual of the Professional Golfers Association of America. The 2001 second edition of “The Complete Golf Club Fitting Plan” is also the official fitting book of the PGA. Mr. Maltby has also written the definitive golf club repair book titled “Golf Club Repair in Pictures”. This book is currently in its fifth edition, used worldwide and translated into other languages. Another book in its fourth printing is the “Golf Club Assembly Manual”. In 2005 the first edition of “The Maltby Playability Factor (MPF) for Irons” was published. This is a monumental work that was conceived, researched and developed over a twelve year period. MPF is a rating system on golf club iron playability which uses mass and dimensional properties of a club-head and classifies that head as to how hard or easy it is to play. This book, “How Golf Clubs Work . . . & Affect Your Ability to Score”, is an expanded and updated rewrite of the original book published in 1997. The content has been increased three fold from the original and is designed to help all golfers under-stand their equipment better so they can play their best. All of Mr. Maltby’s books are the number one selling books on these selected subjects and have totaled hundreds of thousands of copies sold. Graduating from the University of South Florida with a marketing degree, he also studied engineer-ing. He played golf prior to and during his college days. While attending the university he operated a club repair and custom golf shop. Before joining Spalding as a Product Engineer in 1969, Ralph Maltby served as a wood head finishing consultant to several major golf club manufacturers. At Spalding he designed a number of new golf clubs and later became Product Manager for golf products. In 1973 he joined Faultless Sports as Director of Marketing. There he developed and patented a number of highly innovative club designs and was promoted to Vice President of Operations with overall marketing and manufacturing responsibilities.

In 1976, Mr. Maltby founded the GolfWorks and has been manufacturing and distributing golf clubs, machines, gauges, tools, and supplies world-wide to golf club repair shops, golf professionals, manufacturers, custom clubmakers and do-it yourselfers. In 2006 Mr. Maltby sold the GolfWorks to Golf Galaxy. He is still actively involved with golf equipment testing, further advancing golf club design technology and improving methods for fitting golf clubs to the individual. He spends most of his time in a state of the art golf club research and development studio doing this work and where he also produces educational videos on many golf club equipment related subjects. Mr. Maltby has lectured at over 250 PGA Business Schools on Golf Club Design Principles, Golf Club Fitting and Golf Club Repair Procedures. He lectured annually at the Tour Players School with a 5 ½ hour presentation entitled “Working With Your Equipment”. He has taught basic and advanced repair and fitting workshops for the PGA, and written numerous articles for golfing publications around the world. He has also made appearances on The Golf Channel discussing golf technical information. He is a member of the Golf Writers Association of America, The Golf Collectors Society and an honorary member of the Professional Clubmakers Society. In 1991 he was listed by Golf Digest magazine as one of the 36 most powerful men in golf. In 1996 Mr. Maltby was inducted into the “Professional Clubmakers Society” Hall of Fame and in 2005 he was inducted into the Ohio Golf Hall of Fame. Mr. Maltby was distinguished by being appointed an honorary member of the New Zealand Profes-sional Golfers Association in 1980. Besides golf, his hobbies are boating, scuba diving, auto racing and flying. He has a commercial pilot’s license and advanced ground instructor’s license in addition to being instrument rated in single and multi engine aircraft. He also holds a national competition license from the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and a professional license from the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA).

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